Changing
by Chocolate Chip Cookie
Summary: He'd destroyed everything she'd loved in her life; her friends, her family, her home, everything. She knew that somehow, she'd have to go back in time and change the future, even if she'd never be able to come back. She'd change him. ON HIATUS.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Prologue

Change. It's amazing how powerful one little word could be. So much of it had happened in Hermione Granger's life, starting with the fateful day that she received her letter to Hogwarts. It seemed like a gift then, a dream; she could save the world with her magic, just like they did in fairy tales. She'd be able to fly on broomsticks (which she later found out that it wasn't so pleasant for her), make things fly, and move things from halfway across the room. She was talented, and even though some people thought she would never amount to anything due to her non-magical family history, she was determined to prove herself.

But little did she know that change isn't always good. Her life gave way to a disastrous turn when she found her parents dead during Christmas holiday. Since then, she used her gift, her magic, to fight a war that seemed to be at a stalemate for years. And even though she was not yet 18, Hermione Granger was willing to risk her life for the thing that had turned her life around…

Change.

00000

"HARRY! NO!" Hermione yelled out to the-boy-who-lived. She cried out in pain a hooded death eater sent a Cruciatus curse. It felt like a thousand knives were piercing her body. She'd felt this kind of pain before, after all, it was all part of the war against the Dark Lord, but every time it seemed to be worse. Her body screamed at her to give up, to let go, but she couldn't. She had to save Harry. She fought the pain and the tears, concentrating on getting to Harry. She lifted her wand and muttered a stun that hit the death eater, ending the torturous curse. Hermione dragged herself up and sprinted with all her might towards Harry. "HARRY!" She saw him, he was merely a few feet away. She had to get to him, help him, and fight with him. A flash of green light and she saw her best friend crumple to the ground. And then, everything went black.

00000

Hermione opened her eyes. She winced, the harsh sunlight hitting her eyes. Groaning, she forced her aching muscles to move. Her muscles protested, having been battered and used well past their limit.

Hogwarts was decimated, destroyed. Everything that Hermione Granger, the studious Gryffindor bookworm knew and called home had been wiped out. Her friends, Ginny, Ron, Harry, everyone, was nowhere to be seen. Tears stung her eyes as she stared at the faceless corpses that lay littered around at her feet, the bodies of the fellow Hogwarts students that had shared the same sense of safety and home with her, the Hogwarts students that she would never be able to meet, the Hogwarts students that she would never be able to be talk to.

And then she thought of her parents, who'd been killed by a death eater attack. Tears streamed freely down her cheeks as she recalled what had happened. She'd arrived back at Hogwarts after winter holidays, only to find that her parents had been killed.

_What do I have to live for? My friends, my family, my world has been destroyed._

Hermione continued to limp around, ignoring the pain that pierced through her leg every time she walked. She ignored the huge cut she had on her forehead. She wanted to find someone, some thing, anything, that might help her continue on…

Something shiny on the ground caught her eye. She bent down, wincing as her muscles on her back protested. The familiar object brought back memories of her third year, when she had used it to save Sirius and Buckbeak. _Ha! What a waste! They're both dead too. _She thought bitterly.

Then, something struck her. She would go back in time and change everything. Somehow, she'd find a way to show Tom Riddle compassion. She would find someway, anyway, to change him for the better and prevent this future from happening.

For the first time in Hermione Granger's life, she didn't stop and think about the consequences. She didn't think about how she might get stuck in time and never be able to come back. Instead, she took a deep breath and set the time turner back…

…to 1944.


	2. Chapter 1

Haha :) This is my new story :D Got writers block on my other ones. Might pick those up again later :P

Anywho, hope you like this story! If so, please write a review, so that i may write/post more chapters up. I have a good feeling about this story!

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Chapter 1-

Hermione Granger woke up to find herself wrapped up in bandages surrounded by white curtains. Puzzled, she sat up, only to lie back down due to the pain. Puzzled, she thought back to the last thing she did. Then it hit her.

_Why did I do something so stupid? _Now Hermione's bookworm habits kicked in. She mentally kicked herself for doing something so irrational.

Suddenly, the curtains opened up, revealing a plump mediwitch. It wasn't Madame Pomfrey, which was a clear indication that Hermione had indeed come back in time and that this wasn't a horrible nightmare that she was having.

"Oh, you're awake now?" She said with a Scottish accent. "Does it hurt?" She asked Hermione as she began to check on her injuries.

Hermione winced as she touched the huge bruise on her side. All her cuts and broken bones were healed, but there was nothing that the mediwitch could do about bruises. She immediately thought of Harry after his first Quidditch game, when he fell off his broom, still managing to hold onto the Snitch. She felt a pang of sadness as she thought of her friend that had died in the hands of Lord Voldemort.

She wouldn't let it end that way. She would change history.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar headmaster that had just entered the Hospital Wing and was making his way towards her bed. She felt her heart jump as she saw a familiar face, yet another victim to die for the side of good against Lord Voldemort.

"How are you feeling?" Dumbledore asked, his twinkling eyes studied her.

"She's a lot better now." The mediwitch answered. "Still a few bruises, but the cuts and broken bones have all fixed up quite nicely."

"Thank you Dona." Dumbledore smiled, and then turned his attention back at Hermione. When the mediwitch, whose name was apparently Dona, had left the room, Dumbledore proceeded to ask, "How's the future?"

Hermione gaped at the headmaster. "How… how'd you know?"

Dumbledore chuckled, taking a shiny piece of metal, the time turner, out of his pocket. "I'm one of the few individuals that happen to own one of these helpful trinkets."

Hermione smiled sadly. "The future…" She trailed off as she started to feel her eyes fill up with tears. "It's a long story."

"I have all the time in the world." Dumbledore replied.

Hermione smiled. _Still the same Dumbledore. _Sighing, she preceded to tell the long story of the-boy-who-lived and the events leading up to yesterday. (Or the future) Hermione surprised herself by staying calm throughout the story, not once did she shed a tear or almost break down. Of course, by that time, she was so exhausted that she was devoid of emotion, telling the story in such a monotonous tone that could've matched Professor Binns's, the ghost that taught History of Magic and was famous for his long, drawn out speeches.

Despite that, Dumbledore stayed alert throughout her tale, not once yawning or zoning out. Dumbledore shook his head sadly when she told of the deaths of her friends and family.

"Well Ms.Granger," Dumblebore stated after she finished, "Since you're here, you might as well enjoy it. Would you like to go to class this week? Unless of course you're not feeling well enough to."

"Oh no!" Hermione yelled out. She hated to stay at the Hospital wing, and despite that fact that she was still shook up from "the future," she didn't want to miss too much class.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Well then, rest well. You'll get your classes on Monday. If you need anything, feel free to visit the Room of Requirement." Dumbledore winked and walked out.

Hermione watched Dumbledore exit the Hospital Wing before getting out of her bed. _I wonder if everything will be all right._ The minute she got up, however, Madame Dona came bustling back in.

"Oh no missy, you'll be staying in bed. Don't want you to be getting sick!" She insisted as she pushed Hermione back into bed.

She sighed. Apparently the mediwitches in this year were the same in the future. Now she knew how Harry felt at the Hospital Wing after Quidditch. Dona disappeared for a moment and came back with a clear liquid.

"Sleeping draught." She smiled kindly. "It'll help you sleep better. Made it myself."

Hermione swallowed the bitter liquid, gagging at the taste. Its taste almost rivaled the bone-growing potion. Almost. Apparently Madame Dona didn't take in account the taste when she was making the sleeping draught. Immediately after, Hermione felt her eyes slowly closing and the world around her starting the blur. Then once again, everything went black.

000000

Hermione Granger woke up refreshed and for the first time in the past week, not in pain. Her bruises were disappearing, now just faint lavender on her skin, as apposed to the sickly green it was at the time she arrived. Her face was no longer pale, instead, her cheeks were once again rosy and her eyes were bright again. Finally, Madame Dona cleared her and allowed her to leave the boring hospital wing. Hermione smiled. Freedom at last! Hermione walked over to the familiar eagle statue that was the doorway to Dumbledore's office.

_Great, I need the password. _Hermione frowned.

"Chocolate frogs." No reaction. "Sugar Quills." Nothing. "Lemon Drops." Still nothing. "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans!" The eagle stayed still. Hermione was getting frustrated.

"Pumpkin Pasties." An unfamiliar voice said behind her. The eagle finally started moving, the staircase appearing as it rose up. Hermione turned around, surprised. There was a boy, around her age, with neat brown hair and a handsome face that stared at her. But it wasn't the fact that he was the first student to talk to her or that he was quite good-looking, it was the fact that his silver eyes were staring coldly at her. She stood there, staring as he turned away. _Who was that? Was that Tom Riddle? If so, he was well on his way to becoming the dark lord. _She cringed. She had to make _that_ learn how to care for people? How was that possible?

Hermione turned and started up the steps to Dumbledore's office.

His room was just like she remembered it, except with fewer trinkets. It was just as mysterious and warm, radiating a feeling of safety and harmony. It was difficult to explain. Her heart wrenched as she saw his phoenix perched near his desk, the same one that had saved Harry from the Basilisk in second year. _I must not cry. _

"Feeling better Ms. Granger?"

Hermione jumped. She hadn't heard Dumbledore come in. "Uhh, yes, much better professor." She muttered.

"Very good. Here's your class list." Dumbledore handed over the parchment with her classes on it.

Hermione stared in wonder. He knew all the NEWT classes that she was taking. "How did you…?"

Dumbledore smiled, eyes twinkling. He looked at her through his half moon spectacles. "Good luck in class. The password is Mandrake Root."

She looked at him incredulously. No wonder Lord Voldemort was afraid of him. She excused herself and left the office slightly dazed from the encounter.

Back in the room, Dumbledore chuckled. "This is going to interesting, isn't it Fawkes?"

000000

Hermione walked slowly up the moving steps, ignoring the strange looks that she received from other students. She arrived at the Fat Lady portrait and was once again, reminded of her friends.

"Who are you?" The Fat Lady demanded.

_Still grumpy as ever. _"I'm a transfer student."

"Very well. Password?"

"Mandrake Root." The portrait hole swung open, revealing the common room. To Hermione's delight, it was empty. She wouldn't have to worry about any questions from her other students. She made her way up the girls dormitories and walked in to find that there was an empty bed with a note on it.

To Hermione Granger:

_This will be where you're staying. I took the liberty to find some clothes and books for you. If you need anything, feel free to go the Room of Requirement._

_Cheerio._

_Dumbledore._

Hermione giggled. Cheerio? Dumbledore was still as interesting as ever. She looked into the trunk that was lying on top of her bed to find some clothes that she could change into. Once she changed, she walked slowly down to the Great Hall.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Great Hall was bustling with activity, students eating, students chatting, students throwing food, students throwing hexes, etc. Hermione had the urge to turn back and hide in the girls' bathroom for the rest of they day. _No, you must stay strong. _Her mind urged. _You have to save Harry and Ron. _

She took a dfeep breath, cleared her mind, and took a step into the Great Hall.

It seemed like all eyes were staring at her when she walked in. Hermione felt a blush creeping up to her cheeks as she walked towards the Gryffindor table. She looked up only once, which was at Dumbledore. He smiled amiably at her, as if urging her forward. She sat down and grabbed some breakfast, ignoring the stares from other students.

Dumbledore tapped his glass, indicating that he was going to make an announcement. _Oh no, please no. Please don't announce my name. _Hermione prayed. She was getting enough attention as it is.

"I'm pleased to announce a new transfer student from Beauxbatons. She's been sorted into Gryffindor. Please treat her kindly. Also, as many of you know about the difficult situation of our Head Girl, she has resigned her position. Because of her record, we have decided to appoint Hermione Granger as the Head the new head girl. Hermione Granger, will you please stand up?"

Hermione could feel the look of shock on her face as she stood up. She felft her cheeks growing hot as she smiled and waved for a second, then sat down quickly. She scowled at her muffin.

"What'd that muffin ever do to you?"

Hermione looked up and saw a boy, about her age, smiling widely at her.

"I hate cranberry muffins." She smiled back.

"Well in that case, I'll take it." Then, without hesitating, he took the muffin and stuffed it into his mouth. After a considerable amount of time of chewing, he introduced himself.

"Jake Finch. I'm in the same year as you."

"Hermione Granger."

"I know." He smiled crookedly. "Dumbledore announced it to the whole school."

Hermione groaned. _I didn't know he'd appoint me as Head Girl! _

"I'm guessing that announcement came as quite a shock to you, huh?"

"How'd you know?" Hermione grumbled.

"Well, the look of shock on your face was quite evident. Also because you didn't seem to excited about it." Jake said, stuffing another piece of toast in his mouth. "Anyways, what's your first class?"

"Potions."

"Great! I do too! Want to go together?"

"Sure." Hermione couldn't help but smile. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Hermione walked into the potions dungeons and found that it was as dark and dank as in the future. She hoped that the potions master wouldn't be as biased as Snape had been. _Stupid Snape. _She followed Jake over to a desk and sat down.

"Great. Potions with the Slytherins." Jake muttered. "Oh, you probably don't know this Hermione, but Gryffindors and Slytherins are enemies. If you go talk to them, they'll probably bite your head off."

"Thanks Jake." Hermione smiled. Of course she knew of the unhealthy rivalry between the two houses. That rivalry had earned Ron and Harry endless amounts of detentions scrubbing up the trophy case. She felt her heart drop again.

The door suddenly opened and a stout man walked into the classroom. "Today, we will be making Veritaserum. Can anyone tell me what this is?"

Hermione raised her hand. Going back in time had certainly not gotten rid of her bookworm traits, and she was determined to make a good impression on all her professors.

"Tom Riddle?" The professor called out.

"It's a truth potion. When ingested, the drinker will spill his or her innermost secrets and thoughts."

Hermione looked over and stared straight at the boy who had just spoken. _Tom Riddle? As in Lord Voldemort? _At that moment, he looked over at her. Hermione turned her head around, shocked. She dared to look over there again, only to find that the teenage Voldemort was staring- no, glaring at her with so much vehemence that the phrase "if looks could kill" came to mind. She fought back a shiver and continued to take notes.

"Now, I'll will pair you up with partners and you will make the potion. Don't think that I'll grade easily on you because of the degree of difficulty for this potion. You are in my top NEWTS class, I expect you to be able to brew this correctly. Your grade depends on it! Both partners have to work together, for it's impossible to make this potion without working together. So don't even think of slacking off, or both your grades will suffer! "

"Aw man." Hermione heard Jake groan. "Professor Slughorn loves to pair up Slytherins and Gryffindors."

"Hermione Granger, will you please come up." Hermione cringed. She had been part of the infamous "Slug Club" when Slughorn had taught at Hogwarts. She sighed, walking up to his desk.

"Because you're new here and I don't know your abilities, I'll pair you up with my best student." Slughorn told her. _Please not Tom Riddle, Please not Tom Riddle. I'm not ready to face him yet. _"Tom!" _Dang it. _"Tom, this is Hermione Granger, the Head Girl. Hermione, this is Tom, the Head Boy." _What? _"Tom, please help Hermione get used to her surroundings and such. She'll be your partner for this potion." Slughorn ushered the two away.

Hermione sighed. Looks like she'd have to face him earlier than she'd like. Hermione forced on a smile. "Hermione Granger." She said, sticking out her hand.

"I thought Slughorn had already introduced us." Volde- no, Tom snapped at her.

"Yes, but it's also polite." Hermione gritted her teeth, trying to keep the smile on her face, her patience already very thin.

"I don't do formalities." Tom answered simply. "Now go get the ingredients, unless of course, you can't do that by yourself?"

Hermione put on an overly sweet smile. "No, of course I can. I just wanted to make sure that my _partner _was competent enough to set up the cauldron by himself." Tom glared at her, but she had already turned around and made her way to the supply closet.

"I feel sorry for you. You've got Riddle." Jake whispered to Hermione while gathering supplies.

Hermione sighed. "Yeah, he doesn't seem to like me very much."

"Riddle doesn't like _anyone. _He hexed a first year in his third year for spilling his pumpkin juice on him. Don't know how he got the Head Boy position. But he's acting stranger than usual. He usually doesn't hate anyone until they do something wrong. Did you do anything to anger him?"

"I just said hi." Hermione grumbled.

"He must not like you then. Look, he's glaring daggers at you right now. I think he wants you to stop chatting with me and get the supplies."

Hermione dared not to look over, she was terrified enough by the fact that she would be partnered up with the most feared wizard since Grindelwald. She hurried over back to the table with all the supplies.

"Took you long enough." Tom hissed.

"Well _Riddle," _Hermione shot back, "I thought Slughorn had told you to help me. A student that knew what they were doing would know that there are many supplies required to make the potion and couldn't be carried by one person. So yes, I took a while because I had to find a way to hold all the ingredients without dropping any!"

Tom said nothing; instead, he ignored the brunette and started to make the potion.

00000

The heat in the classroom was excruciating and the directions to make the potion were painstakingly exact. One more second of heat would cause the potion to go horribly wrong. Hermione wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead.

"3-2-1, STOP!" Hermione yelled at Riddle. They had finally finished the potion. Now, all they had to do was wait a full-moon cycle for it to mature. Hermione filled up a vial of the clear liquid, bottled it up, and put their names on it. She was tempted to not put Tom's name on it, but it may have resulted in her name being at the top of the "to kill" list.

"Very good Ms.Granger! I see you and Tom worked very well together!" Professor Slughorn said in delight as he examined their potion. He put it among the other potions, some of which were way discolored, from shades of puce to maroon. Theirs was the only one that had the clear, water-like characteristic that Veritaserum potion should have. There were only a few others that were remotely close to being clear. "I guess Beauxbatons has taught you well! No wonder Dumbledore suggested you as being the new Head Girl!"

"Thank you professor." Hermione said before going back to her desk and getting her stuff. She waited for Jake to finish, who apparently didn't have much luck brewing the potion. His turned out to be hot pink. His partner apparently forgot to add Dittany after the third counterclock stir. He had added too much fluxweed.

"But hey, how was it with Riddle?" Jake asked after explaining his disastrous potions class.

"We didn't say much, just concentrated on making the potion."

"I see… well, I have to go to Herbology now! I'll see you at lunch!" Jake said before running off.

"See ya!" Hermione sighed. Off to Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She wondered who taught it. She remembered that the class was thought to be "cursed" and each teacher would only teach for one year before resigning. To her dismay, she found that Tom Riddle once again shared the same class with her.

The professor, Professor Merrythought, was teaching the students how to conjure a Patronus. Most of the class managed to conjure up a tiny wisp of silver, but nothing more. Hermione smiled. She'd learned this in her 5th year with Dumbledore's army. But once again, she felt something tug at her heartstrings as she thought of her friends.

_Think happy thoughts. _She thought about the time that Harry and Ron took her broom riding, how wonderful the view was up in the sky, and how Harry threatened to drop her as a joke. She felt that warm feeling she always had before casting a Patronus. With a confident voice, she said, "_Expecto Patronum."_

A silver otter leapt out of Hermione's wand and swan across the room. Many of the girls giggled in delight at the cute creature that was swimming around cheerfully. Some of the guys stared in wonder at the new student, who was now the new Head Girl.

"Very good Ms.Granger." Professor Merrythought commended her.

From the back corner of the classroom, she heard another voice murmur the Patronus charm, and soon heard a hissing coming from the back of the room. Tom Riddle had managed to summon up a silver corporeal Patronus in the form of a snake, and it was now following her otter. Hermione stared at Tom in wonder. _What happy memory did he think of?_ She shuddered.

Gasps came around the classroom. Hermione whirled around, only to find Tom's Patronus trying to fight Hermione's otter. She looked over at Tom who was lazily swishing his wand around. _I'll be the first to beat you Tom Riddle. _She concentrated on another memory, and her Patronus grew bigger in size. The snake hissed and lunged towards the otter, but her otter was so big now, that it swallowed up Tom's patronus.

The whole classroom was silent. Hermione looked over to meet the glaring silver eyes of Tom Riddle. She glared back. _You're not going to win this fight. _To her surprise, Tom drew back and gathered his books and left the classroom.

Hermione had no idea how she was going to change Tom Riddle. But she didn't know that she'd already had an effect on him. He was already changing…


	4. Chapter 3

Thanks for reviews that i got! :D

it has come to my attention that i've not been that accurate as it relates to the harry potter world, and i'm very sorry if it confuses you. I'm not going to fix it because then it would screw up my plotline. (That would be muy mal! haha)

Anywho, please read and review! I'd love to hear from you! :)

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Chapter 3-

Tom was furious. How could he, Lord Voldemort, the soon-to-be most feared wizard of time, let a girl win? He'd stomped out of class when he was unable to hold his glare towards that new girl, what was her name? Hermione Grander? Granger? Yes, that was it, Hermione Granger. He stopped himself. Why did it matter what her name was? She's just a mere witch.

Yes, that's right. She was only a witch. A witch that would be powerless against him once he rose to power.

But how could he lose to her? How come he couldn't stand his place?

There was something about her eyes that he couldn't pinpoint. Those brown, warm eyes that seemed so intelligent and so hard to read. Those eyes that were the window to her soul were so deep, yet they harbored a burden, something that he didn't know about. Something that Tom Marvolo Riddle wanted to know.

He groaned as he dropped onto his bed in his room. He didn't have an interest in her. He _couldn't._ He was Lord Voldemort for Merlin's sake! His thoughts were interrupted by the squeak of the portrait hole as someone walked in. _Who'd enter the Head's dorm? No one knows the password!_

Tom Riddle rose up from his bed and walked out, only to find the one person he didn't want to see standing in the middle of the Head's common room. He'd apparently forgotten the fact that she was the newly appointed Head Girl and they'd be living in the same dorm. He mentally slapped himself on the head for forgetting this little, but quite important, detail.

--

Hermione Granger was standing in the middle of the common room when she heard another door open. Out walked Tom Riddle, the boy that had been glaring at her earlier during DADA class. She braced herself for another murderous glare, but to her surprise, he only stared at her with emotionless eyes.

_Phew, least he's not glaring at me. _(Although she did feel kind of awkward staring back.) She put on an awkward smile. "Looks like we'll be sharing dorms." Was all she could muster up. _That's pathetic Hermione. After all these years of practice verbally jousting with Draco Malfoy, is this all you can come up with? _

"Looks like it." Tom answered monotonously. "Whatever you do, don't bother me when I'm doing homework. Don't bring your little friends over for a party, for I'll be happy to give them detentions and take away house points."

_So we're back to being mean to each other huh? Well, two can play at that game. _"Well, don't bring _your _little friends over to make plans on who you're going to hex next, okay? Because _I'll _be happy to report you to Dumbledore and get you AND your little friends expelled." The look of surprise on his face was priceless. "That's right, I know about what you do." Hermione said before walking towards the Head Girl's room to set up her stuff.

Hermione jumped as she felt someone's hand grab her forcibly on her shoulder and whirl her around to face… none other but Tom Riddle. Her feeling of victory went away as she looked into his cold, silver eyes.

"Don't you dare meddle into my business," He hissed at her. His hand flew up and Hermione shut her eyes, waiting for the blow to happen, but he surprised her by walking off. She stood there, shocked, not knowing what just happened.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, she had lunch sitting with Jake and his friends, who were pretty nice. Her other classes were a breeze (considering she'd taken most of them already). She'd gained the respect of many of her classmates and teachers who no longer questioned why she was chosen to be the new Head Girl. Which brought her back to the subject of the Head Boy. Who was Tom Riddle? It seemed like there was more to him than she knew about. Perhaps he wasn't the sadistic teenager she thought he was.

--

Tom skipped lunch. He wasn't feeling hungry. He even skipped class. He spent his time in the library, looking through the restricted section. This was one of the privileges for being Head Boy; he had access to things that other students didn't. He tried to engage himself to the Dark Arts book, which usually fascinated him, but his mind kept wandering off. It wasn't the fact that he was distracted that bothered him; he was distracted quite easily. It was _whom _he was distracted by. His mind kept going back to the look of terror and fear on her face when he had raised his hand. He wasn't going to strike her and it bothered him that she had thought that way about him. He normally didn't care whether or not people feared him, it was a plus, actually, because he didn't have to worry about conversation. But the fact that Granger had thought he would hit her bothered him.

He groaned loudly, causing the librarian to look at him in distaste. He quickly closed his book and rushed out of the library to clear his head. He _really _needed to clear his head.

By the time that he had reached the lake, classes were over for the day, and students were streaming out into the hallways. Tom made his way towards his favorite spot, which was far away, where you couldn't hear the mindless chattering of the other students. No one knew about this spot, so he knew that he could think in peace.

Or so he thought.

--

Hermione Granger walked out of class slowly, not really paying attention to her new friends' conversation. She'd met some new people, all friends of Jake's, Clarice Walters, being one of them, seemed to bond with her the best. But Hermione was too distracted to listen. Tom Riddle wasn't at class in the afternoon and was currently MIA. When she asked her friends, they merely shrugged, saying that he missed class all the time, but it didn't seem to affect his grades. She scowled. Of course they wouldn't care, they didn't know that he'd end up destroying the wizarding world in the future for Merlin's sake.

"Hello? Earth to Hermione." Jake called, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You okay?"

"Oh, yea. Umm, I'm gonna go. I'm not feeling that well." Hermione excused herself and ran off to her favorite place, her sanctuary.

She sat by the lake, thinking about her friends, and this time, she allowed the tears to fall; there was no one around. She thought of her parents, her friends, Hogwarts, everything. She wondered if she'd really be able to change the future.

A twig snapped as someone stepped on it. Hermione whirled around, only find Tom Riddle standing there with a confused look on his face.

--

Tom Riddle made it over to his spot by the lake, only to see a certain brunette there. She was looking at the distance and obviously didn't notice him. While looking at Granger, a mere witch, he noticed that she looked beautiful. He stood there for a few minutes, staring at her. He noticed that she'd been crying and he had the urge to comfort her on whatever she'd been crying about. He wanted to do something, anything, to make her feel better.

Tom Riddle recoiled in horror as those thoughts passed through his mind. He cursed inside his head and turned on his heels, ready to leave, when he heard a sickening snap of a twig under his feet.

_Damn it. _

He turned around and stared straight at the face of a crying Hermione Granger. He felt his heart drop. He started to step forward, but caught himself. Instead, he turned around and stormed off, angry with himself.

But he wasn't sure what he was angry at. Was he angry with himself for thinking that way about Hermione, or was he angry with himself that he couldn't do anything to help her?

He honestly at no idea.


	5. Chapter 4

Thank you to TheCrzyinglyInsne1, 00jade, Nixiefare, Turner Princess, 3rdplanet, UltimateProcrastinator, and melu785! I love you all :) I hope you keep enjoying my story and reviewing it. :D

Here's Chapter 4! :D Hope you like! Enjoy

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Chapter 4-

The week after the crying incident was very awkward for Hermione, and unbeknownst to her, for Tom too. It was even more awkward due to the fact that they had Head meetings almost everyday to discuss the upcoming social event, which was the Halloween Ball. The Prefects were as unhelpful as ever, suggesting absolutely outrageous ideas that even Merlin himself wouldn't have been able to pull off.

Hermione groaned when she and Tom had reached the Head dorm. "They prefects sure have a wild imagination," talking more to herself than to Tom. After all, she wasn't expecting him to answer. They hadn't communicated with each other unless it was absolutely needed, which was totally okay with Hermione. She was still struggling to think of a plan for how she was going to make Tom change. She'd probably be better off trying to move a mountain. Besides, whenever she encountered Tom outside of Head duties, she'd say or do something that would earn her a glare towards her direction, which was more of a step backwards.

"More like they're stupid. We're never going to get finished." Tom grumbled.

Hermione was taken aback by his comment. She hadn't expected him to respond to her comment.

"You know, at least they contributed ideas. You, on the other hand, did nothing but reject every single idea laid on the table."

"Yea, let's have a Halloween ball with ACTUAL beasts and monsters! Yeah! Then we could dance with the trolls and vampires that are oh so friendly!" He added sarcastically.

"There's nothing wrong with dreaming big."

"Why? So we can set ourselves up for failure?" Tom spat bitterly.

Okay, NOW she was a bit annoyed. Her exhaustion didn't help with her temper either. Didn't he have one ounce of optimism in him? "Why can't you be nice? Why can't you have at least _one _optimistic thought about something? You know, the whole world isn't out to get you. If you would just look and pay attention, you'd realize that at least some of the world is good." She snapped back.

"Oh, you want me to be optimistic, huh?" Tom stood up and walked over to Hermione, his steel grey eyes were inches away from hers, glaring down at her. "Try and be optimistic when your father abandoned you and your mother, your mother died and left you at an orphanage, and you spent your childhood suffering, being bullied in an orphanage and called a freak because of the strange things that happened around you that even you could explain."

_Oops. _Hermione hadn't realized that she'd reached a touchy subject. She wanted to say something, but Tom just continued on. "And when you reach Hogwarts, the one place that you think that you can be treated normally, you get sorted into a house where blood matters the most. Did I mention that my father's a muggle? Yes, I'm a HALF BLOOD! Yes Hermione Granger. You try and be optimistic about that.

_Oh, that's it Riddle. You're on. _Hermione could feel her blood boiling."Oh really Tom? Do you honestly think that I haven't had my fair share of struggles? Do you think that my life is one happy fairy tale? Well, for your information, all my friends got murdered, brutally by a dark wizard. I was cursed and couldn't get up to help my friends. I _watched _them die, right in front of me." Hermione started to feel tears brimming in her eyes. "Oh, and to add to all my happiness, my parents died during the Christmas holiday during my fifth year. They were murdered too. I found out once I got back to school." Hermione paused to get a grip on herself. She was not going to let Tom Riddle see her cry again. "And about your heritage, not everyone cares about that. Here's some news for you. My parents are both muggles. I've been called a mudblood since my first year at school. I didn't even know what it was the first time they called me that. Think about _that, _Riddle." Hermione spat out and walked off and slammed the door to her room, leaving Riddle standing there.

--

Okay, so maybe he'd gone too far. I mean, seriously, who'd know about her past? She's a transfer student from Beauxbatons! No one knew anything about her past.

And yet, a part of Tom felt guilty for jumping to conclusions. He was shocked to hear about what had happened to her in the past. The other part of him was screaming and shouting at him for revealing his past to her. He'd never done that before, ever.

_This girl's making me go insane. _He sighed, running his hand through his hair. His thoughts were conflicting, and his head was beginning to hurt. Figuring that a good night's sleep would clear his mind, he dressed for bed. He felt himself drifting to sleep…

_A familiar brunette was running towards him, and a young teenager was standing before him, a flash of green light and the boy crumpled down. "NOO!" The brunette screamed as she lunged towards the young boy, only to be hit by a curse from a nearby hooded figure. Her screams echoed through the night._

Tom woke up abruptly, panting, a cold sweat covering his body. _What was that dream supposed to mean? _He didn't understand it. He also didn't understand what was so special about Hermione Granger. _Why is it that I can't even stop thinking about her in my dreams? _He groaned. _Why did she have to show up now?_

--

As the weeks passed by and the Halloween Ball was coming closer and closer, Hermione was finding that she was having less and less time to hang out with her friends. (But this also meant that she could distract herself from thinking about what had occurred that night after the Head's and prefect's meeting with Tom)

"Do you ever take some time for yourself?" Jake inquired during dinner the next day. Ever since he'd met her, she'd always either be reading a book or doing homework whenever she had free time. It was even more so this month, because it seemed that the NEWTS classes were giving out more and more homework. Even Jake, possibly the biggest underachiever ever was feeling overwhelmed.

"Of course she does! She spends it at the library!" Clarice joked around.

Jake rolled his eyes. "Hey, we've got a Hogsmeade trip this weekend. Want to come with? Unless of course you're too busy partying in the library."

Hermione hit him with her potions textbook. (Which was really thick and heavy) "I don't spend all my time at the library. And you know, I'm busy planning the Halloween Ball for you guys."

"So will you go with us Hermione?" Clarice asked eagerly. "We can go buy our costumes!"

Hermione sighed. "I guess…" She needed a break from her studies. It'd been a while since she'd last gone out with her friends, unafraid of death eater attacks. With this thought, her mind went back to Tom Riddle. She peeked over at the Slytherin table, only to find Tom Riddle gazing at he with a curious expression on his face. Hermione quickly averted her gaze, embarrassed for some strange reason, and returned to her dinner.

At the Slytherin table, Tom smirked as he saw Granger turn away in embarrassment. His friends, no- acquaintances, noticed his interest in the Gryffindor Head Girl.

"Does Tom have a girlfriend now?" Abraxas Malfoy sneered at him.

"A Gryffindor now? Tsk, tsk. I'd think that you'd have better taste than that Tom." Someone else said.

"Come on guys, I'll bet that Tom is thinking of a way to torture little-Miss-Head-Girl over there. I mean, who'd like her? I even heard rumors that she's a mudblood." Orion Black said.

"Really, then it can't possibly be love!" Abraxas roared with laughter. "Hey Tom, let's send a hex over to her. It'd be perfect for her Halloween costume." Murmurs of agreement went around the table.

"NO!" Tom yelled out. "Don't you dare lay a hand on her." He got up and stormed away. Tom Riddle found himself feeling strangely protective over her. He left the Slytherin table gaping at him, shocked that Tom Riddle had protected someone- the Head Girl no less.

Hermione Granger had been watching the series of events unfolding at the Slytherin table with interests. It appeared that Tom Riddle had _friends_ of some sort. She looked at each one of them, one of which looked almost identical to the slimy ferret boy, Draco Malfoy from the future. She figured he was his grandfather. _All future Death Eaters, great. _

"Huh? What'd you say?" She asked, trying to catch up in their conversation from the momentary distraction she had.

"I said, what do you want to be for the Halloween ball?" Clarice asked, eager to find out.

"I don't know. Haven't given much thought about it, actually." Hermione answered.

"Great! Then I'll help you pick!" She squeaked in delight.

"Fair warning," Jake whispered to Hermione, "Last year, when I let her pick my costume, I went to the Halloween Ball in a cow suit."

0000

Hermione smiled triumphantly as she put the finishing touched to her 8-foot long DADA essay. Even thought the professor's name was Merrythought, the students didn't have merry thoughts towards him after finishing such a long and laborious essay. It was Saturday, and Hermione had finished all her homework. She was ready to enjoy the rest of the day at Hogsmeade! She grimaced at the thought of Clarice helping her find her costume. _Oh well, might as well enjoy this!_

Hermione put up her things and skipped happily out of her room in the Heads Dorm. She hadn't been this happy in months.

"Why are you so happy?" An all-too-familiar voice called out.

Hermione stopped in her tracks. _Dang it_. She'd forgotten that she shared the Head's Room with the future-Dark-Lord. She'd been trying to keep on good terms with him, but she hadn't made much progress in that area. She turned around slowly, putting a smile on her face. She felt her face heating up and her heart beat accelerating. She had no idea why, and it was making it extremely hard to concentrate.

"I'm going to Hogsmeade to buy my costume for the Halloween ball. What about you? What're you going as?" Hermione asked, trying to strike up conversation.

Tom frowned.

"You do know that the prefects and heads have to be present, right?"

"Of course I know that." Tom snapped.

"Good. Well, I have to go now! Clarice is probably waiting for me!" Hermione hurried out of the Heads dorm.

Back in the room, Tom groaned. He had forgotten that he had to get a costume for the event. Sighing, he stood up reluctantly and went to dig some money out of his trunk. Looks like he was going to go shopping too.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 5

Hey guys! :) OMG! Two updates in one weekend! NO WAY :)

This is a happy memorial day present, i guess. Make sure you pray for the ones that have lost their lives fighting!

Anywho, onward to Chapter 5 :D

DISCLAIMER: Still don't own Harry Potter. Darn it.

Please write a review if you like it! :D Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 5

Hermione gazed at all the sweets at Honeyduke's. Despite the fact that she'd gone every Hogsmeade trip since her third year, she'd always had trouble figuring out what to buy. Her favorite was probably the sugar quills, but she was also partial to the strawberry sorbet surprises. She also liked to try new things, and this is what was so difficult. Sighing, she decided she'd go with the usual, a box of sugar quills and the sorbet surprises.

"Hurry up Hermione! Let's go get costumes! The stores are going to get busy really quickly!" Clarice urged. Looks like she couldn't stall any longer. Hermione walked over to Clarice with a grimace on her face. _Hopefully I won't end up with a matching cow suit with Jake. _

The two girls (and Jake) walked into Madam Justine's Dress Robe shop. Hermione walked into the cheerful shop and gazed at the many costumes that hung on the racks, just in time for the Halloween Ball. Hermione and Clarice (dragging in Jake) had gotten there early right after they stopped at Honeyduke's, for everyone else had decided to make a stop at the Three Broomsticks, so they were the first customers.

"Bonjour Ladies!" Madam Justine cooed as she floated towards them. She seemed very nice and Hermione sighed as she realized that Lord Voldemort killed Madam Justine in his early days.

"So, what can I do for you ladies?" (She ignored Jake. This was a female dress robe shop, and even if Jake wanted a female dress robe, Madam Justine didn't want to know about it.)

"We're here to get costumes for the Halloween ball!" Clarice said as she dragged Hermione over towards Madame Justine. Madam Justine scrutinized Hermione, making her feel extremely self conscious.

"Very well, I'm sure we have something that will fit perfectly." She said In her French accent. "Come with me."

Hermione looked over to Jake for help, only to see him mouth "Good luck" towards her. Hermione couldn't help but have a feeling of dread as she was pulled into the dressing room.

Hours later, after many discarded costumes, Hermione and Clarice emerged out of the store, looking very satisfied. (Jake had already left after taking 2 naps while Hermione and Clarice were shopping)

The girls chatted animatedly as they walked about to school, excited about the upcoming event.

"Hermione, you're going to look so pretty! I bet all the cute boys will be looking at you" Clarice complimented.

Hermione blushed, her mind suddenly wandered to a certain steel-gray eyed Slytherin.

Clarice, not missing a beat, probed her. "OH! Do you already have someone I mind? Who? Who?"

"No one!" Hermione giggled, running ahead of Clarice, trying to hide her embarrassed face.

"I know there's someone!" Clarice followed, "I'll find out who it is soon, you know!"

By the time that Hermione reached her head's dorm, she was red-faced, panting from running all the way back. She was startled to find that Tom Riddle was sitting at the couch, casually reading one of her favorite books, Hogwarts a History. _Maybe we do have something in common. Maybe this'll make it easier to talk to him. _At this thought, Tom looked up at Hermione, locking gazes with her for a second, and then lazily looking away, as if not recognizing her existence. _Or maybe not. _

"Did you find a costume?" Tom suddenly asked, not looking up from his book.

Hermione was startled by the sudden question, but she answered, not wanting to be rude. "Yes, I did. Clarice helped me pick it out. How about you? Did you manage to find a costume?" Tom stayed silent, and Hermione assumed that he didn't wish to talk to her, so she started towards her room, not expecting any more conversation to occur between the two.

"Dumbledore said that he wished for the Heads and the prefects to dance together to open the Ball." Hermione nearly dropped her bag. She hadn't been expecting this. Hermione whirled around, eyes wide, gaping at Tom.

Tom frowned as he looked up and saw the expression on her face. "Is something wrong?"

Hermione mentally shook herself. "No, nothing's wrong. Well, better finish my homework now." She turned and entered her room.

Tom put his book down and massaged his temples. How come he felt so anxious to tell her and see her reaction? And why had he felt his heart throb when he did see it? Why had he specially gone to Hogsmeade and gotten a new costume for the Ball? He usually just went there in his usual dress robes. He usually didn't care about these social gatherings and only went because he was forced to go. After all, the Dark Lord didn't have to worry about such petty trivialities. In the future, it wouldn't matter if Lord Voldemort went to the Halloween ball or not. _Merlin._ _This is so confusing. _

000

As the day of the Ball drew ever closer, Hermione found herself even more distracted. Even her professors were wondering what was wrong and whether or not she should visit Madame Dona in the Hospital Wing. She found herself daydreaming and gazing off into space, her thoughts usually involved dancing with a certain _someone_. She didn't understand what was so weird about it.

"Granger, are you okay?" A voice asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked around, finding that she was in the library and had once again, been lost in her thoughts. She looked to find the source of the voice and found herself looking into the eyes of Tom Riddle. She gasped out loud.

"I'm sorry, did I startle you?" Tom looked at her with concern in her eyes.

"I… I…" Hermione found that she couldn't say anything. I mean, what would _you _say if the future dark lord looked like he was looking at you with so much concern in his eyes that you never thought was possible? As she stared at Tom, she realized that he didn't look that bad. He was actually… pretty handsome. She felt a blush rise to her cheeks as this thought occurred to her head.

Tom scowled. "You know, if you really didn't wish to dance with me at the Halloween Ball, you could've just told me."

Hermione, finding her voice again, denied it. "No! Of course not! I… want to dance with you." It was true, Hermione found.

Tom raised an eyebrow, obviously surprised by her answer. "Well then," Tom said while standing up, "keep up the good work." Tom walked over to Hermione and hesitantly patted her on the head in encouragement

Hermione sat there in shock. Had Tom Riddle just encouraged her? And patted her head? This was _definitely _not going to help her concentrate any better. I mean, he smelled _so good._ Okay, so Hermione wasn't usually the type of girl that would go around smelling random guys, but she couldn't help but notice. He smelled nice, kind of how Harry smelled, so realized. _Oh wow, Harry Potter and future Voldemort have something in common. _She thought sarcastically. Hermione then realized that maybe there was more to Tom Riddle than Dark Arts and mass murdering people. He too, had emotion once in his life, and he was actually pretty nice. Hermione's actually gotten to somewhat know him, and she couldn't help but think that there was hope. She also realized that she thought of him as a friend, someone she could talk to and hang out with. _Wow. I'm friends with Lord Voldemort. _

--

Tom Riddle stared at his hand, the one that had patted Hermione Granger's head a few minutes before. His hand was tingling from the touch. The "Dark Lord" part of him mentally chastised himself for showing compassion and giving encouragement towards someone. Tom blocked out that part of him. He didn't want to think about it right now.

000

The week before the ball, there was a massive rush for dates. On many occasions, a random guy asked Hermione that she vaguely remembered as sharing the same class as her, but that was pretty much it. She was never good at remembering names. Of course, she rejected every single one of them; she had no interest in going with someone she didn't know. Clarice found a date with the Hufflepuff seeker, the handsome and popular Derek Diggory. Hermione snorted when Clarice had made the announcement. She really hoped that Clarice wouldn't be like Cho Chang, Harry's ex-girlfriend that cried way too much. She remembered Cedric, Derek's future grandson. Derek had about the same features; he was indeed handsome and had the same smile that made many girls weak at the knees. Hermione rolled her eyes. She tended to stay away from those kinds of guys, with the exception of Harry Potter.

Hermione did notice, however, that every time she was asked to the ball, Tom Riddle was around. _Is he following me to see if I say yes? _Hermione shook her head. _You're crazy. He has the same classes with you and the same class route. Of course you'd see him! _Hermione sighed. She couldn't help but wish a little bit that Tom cared about whom she agreed to attend the ball with.

"Ms. Granger? Ms. Granger?" A voice called out. Hermione felt a sharp jab in the ribs and snapped out of her daydream.

"Animagus. " Hermione replied.

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Hermione, surprised that Hermione had answered the question correctly, even thought it was obvious that she hadn't been paying attention to the lesson. Other than that, the strict Gryffindor head said nothing. Hermione smiled to herself. It'd taken her forever to train herself to listen and daydream at the same time, but it's helped her more than once. She heard a snort from the other side of the room and she glanced over, only to see Tom Riddle looking at her with an amused expression on his face. She childishly stuck her tongue out at him and turned her back towards him.

Jake on the other hand wasn't as lucky. Professor McGonagall chewed him out for not paying attention again and threatened that the next time this occurred, he'd receive a week of detention. McGonagall wasn't less strict now than she was in the future.

--

"What was that Tom?" sneered Abraxas Malfoy. If there was an award for best sneer, it'd be awarded to the Malfoys.

"Shut up Malfoy." Tom replied, his good mood quickly diminishing. He'd carefully watched Hermione to see who she'd agree to go to the ball with. He felt himself feeling oddly protective and jealous every time someone asked her out. To his relief, she'd rejected everyone. He and Hermione also started to have decent conversations recently. The hostility between the two Heads seemed to disappear completely. Tom was reluctant to admit it, for he'd never thought of anyone that way, but Hermione was a _friend. _Sure, he hung out with Abraxas and Orion on occasion, but they were_ acquaintances_. And currently, his _acquaintances_ were getting on his nerves.

"Looks like TomTom has a crush on the Gryffindor Head Girl!" Orion snickered quietly.

"Tom Riddle!" McGonagall glared from the front of the classroom, "Keep your friends under control! I expect better from the Head Boy!"

"Yes professor." Tom murmured, sending a glare towards Abraxas and Orion.

"Oh, Tommy got in trouble!" Abraxas and Orion joined in laughing.

"Why don't you two shut up.?" Tom smirked at them and sent the silencing charm towards them. It took all his willpower to not laugh at loud when he saw the confused faces of the two when all of a sudden no sound came out of their mouths. McGonagall ignored the spastic movements in the back of the room as the boys motioned towards Tom to take off the charm. _At least they're quiet. _

Tom looked over at Hermione and saw her figure shaking. He realized that she was holding in laughter. She'd apparently witnessed the whole scene. Tom sat back and smiled. _Maybe Gryffindors aren't so bad after all. _

* * *

Okay, so no Ball scene this chapter, but i promise you'll find out what Tommy and Hermie wears to the Halloween Ball in the next chapter! (I already wrote it, so yah)

Please write a review! I would totally love to hear from each and every one of you! :D

Thanks to all of you that have written a review and please continue writing one, so i feel loved :P I want to feel loved. Lol.

That's all folks! I'll see you next time for Chapter 6! THE HALLOWEEN BALL!


	7. Chapter 6

Here's Chapter 6 :) I've really been spoiling you guys. 3 updates in one week. WOW! Haha. Keep writing those reviews and i'll keep updating! :)

This is the moment you've all been waiting for! The ball chapter! :) Hehe. You can finally find out who's wearing what. :D

Haha, i went through and edited this story after writing it and added a bit to it. I didn't want just Ball chapter. I wanted some conflict. You know, the DRAMA part. Haha. Hope it makes it better. :P But i won't know if it's better unless YOU (yes, you with the face, reading this line) write a review! :D

Anywho, enjoy my pretties! Thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far! Hope you keep reviewing! (I would put you all up here, but i'm an extremely lazy person. Haha. Perhaps the next chapter.)

**DISCLAIMER: **Let me check. Uhh.. nope. Still don't own Harry Potter. Or Hermione Granger. Or Tommy. :P

* * *

Chapter 6

"Trick or Treat. Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!" Peeves flew through the corridors, snickering and singing at the top of his lungs. "If you don't, I don't care! I'll pull down your underwear!" He sang as he pulled down Abraxas Malfoy's pants. Orion roared with laughter, only to find that he was also depantsified.

Hermione laughed at the sight and locked eyes with Tom Riddle, who was laughing just as hard. They nodded at each other, coming to a mutual agreement that they would allow Peeves go this one time, considering that no one was hurt. No blood no foul.

Hogwarts was decorated with pumpkins and cobwebs, all thanks to the Heads and prefects, who'd spent the week decorating the castle. The ball was in a few hours, and all the students were bustling with excitement. All of the student body was getting ready for the exciting event, all but a few handful.

Hermione was part of this group, and was currently having a meeting with the Headmaster about her current situation in the past. Or present. Or something. Time traveling was very confusing business, and it wasn't getting any easier to figure out.

"No professor. There is definitely no such thing as fate! Tom's changed! I just know it!" Hermione yelled, quite loudly actually. Thank Merlin for the wards on Dumbledore's office preventing sound from leaving the room. The paintings in the room, on the other hand, were quite annoyed with the sudden outburst. Hermione stood up, bid the headmaster farewell because she didn't wish to be rude, and rushed out. If what Dumbledore said was true about the history being set in stone and that there was no way of changing it, then Hermione might as well go back to the future and watch it get destroyed by the hands of the Head Boy in which she was currently (somewhat) friends with. This was a very disconcerting thought. But Hermione had to have hope. Tom Riddle would change. She just knew it. It had to be done.

Hermione returned to the common room, her good mood squashed by the recent conversation with the headmaster. Her thoughts were in turmoil, arguing about the question that irked many philosophers in the past. Did fate really exist? Was Tom Riddle really destined to be Lord Voldemort? Evil Dark Lord that destroys the world?

"HERMIONE! We have to do your hair!" Clarice yelled as she entered the Head's common room. (She'd found out the password somehow. Hermione didn't know from whom.)

"I've still got a few hours." Hermione said, returning to her contemplating.

"But the hair takes 2 hours, at least." Clarice complained. "Come on!" Clarice crossed the room and grabbed Hermione out of the chair and dragged her towards the door.

"Who's being so loud?" Tom came out of his room with a frustrated expression on his face, only to see the Head Girl being dragged out against her will.

Hermione sent a pleading glance towards Tom, only to be met by the bemused expression on Tom's face. He obviously wasn't going to be helping her get away from Clarice. Sighing, she admitted defeat and allowed Clarice to drag her out of the Common room.

--

After a lot of hair pulling and struggling to fit into her costume, Hermione had finished preparing for the ball. Clarice and Hermione stood beside each other in front of the mirror.

"You're so pretty Hermione." Clarice pouted. "I'm jealous."

"And you're gorgeous. I should be the one being jealous. Derek Diggory is going to be so shocked by your very presence, he won't be able to speak!" The girls giggled.

"I'll meet you outside." Clarice said as she walked out the door in her ballerina costume. It fit Clarice perfectly; she had a sunny personality and was very graceful, just a like dancer would be. Hermione, on the other hand, was clumsy, and in no way shape or form would fit the title of a ballerina.

Hermione smoothed out her dress, it was very simple, but it was very beautiful. She'd chosen a slightly cliché costume of an angel after rejecting all the far-fetched ones that Clarice had suggested.

"Hermione! Come on! We're going to be late!" Clarice yelled from outside her room.

"Hold on a sec!" Hermione yelled back. Wanting to delay this a little longer. She'd remembered the embarrassment at Yule Ball, and she wasn't sure she was ready to face it again. She scowled. _Ron's not here, stupid. Just go enjoy yourself. _

Hermione wandered to a more serious subject. She wondered if this was all worth it; if her hard work would result in the Dark Lord's change of heart. Scowling, she told her self to not worry about it. She didn't know how to get back to the future anyways, so why not do something while she's here?

Clarice's voice interrupted to silence, now very annoyed. Not being able to delay it any longer, she took a deep breath and walked out of the room.

--

Tom stood next to a wall with a clear view of the staircase, anxiously waiting for the Head Girl. He'd received many glances from other girls, wondering who was behind his mask. _They obviously haven't watched or read much of muggle literature._ The attention all of a sudden shifted towards the staircase, as a brown-haired girl walked slowly down the stairs. She was wearing a white dress with sparkles on it that fit her curves modestly. Mounted on her back were white wings that seemed to flutter as she walked. Then Tom's gaze reached her face. Her eyes were a warm brown color that seemed to light up the room. Her cheeks were pink, embarrassed by the sudden attention. Tom had the sudden urge to touch them.

Finding his courage and ignoring the "Dark Lord" part of him that was screaming in his head, telling him to ignore the witch, he walked over towards the stairs and bowed down, extending his hand toward her. "Care to dance?" He smiled beneath his mask.

"Tom?" She asked, surprised. His hair had been neatly combed and he wore a black tuxedo with a sweeping cape and a mask on that covered half of his face. _Well, he's definitely changed since the time I met him. _Hermione thought as she recalled the look he gave her.

Tom smiled and took her hand and led her towards the Great Hall, now fully decorated. Hermione was surprised by how amazing it looked, despite the fact that she and Tom had decorated it themselves. But there was something else that surprised her even more.

"Phantom of the Opera?!" Hermione whispered, bewildered that he knew what it was. Hadn't a muggle written the book? And she was sure that it wasn't popular until the musical had come out. She knew that wizards weren't interested in Muggle movies (except the Weasley family), so they probably never saw the movie that came out in the 1920s.

"I saw the movie while I stayed at the orphanage." He explained, his voice calm while he recalled his painful childhood. "It always interested me, how he fell in love with someone, despite his horrible experience as a child. If I were him, I'd probably hate mankind for doing what they did."

Hermione couldn't help laugh at the irony. He didn't know this, but the future Tom Riddle did hate mankind and actually succeeded in pretty much destroying the wizarding world.

"What is it?" Tom questioned her. "Why're you laughing?"

"I'll tell you sometime in the future." Hermione smiled. _The future. Wonder what that'll be like. Will it change? _

Tom stared at her with intense eyes. "Please? Tell me?"

"Shh. Dumbledore's about to make an announcement." Hermione interrupted, trying to change the subject. Tom continued to look at her with his smoldering eyes, as if trying to read her mind. _I hope he's not skilled at that area yet. _Hermione thought, recalling that Harry had to be trained by Professor Snape in his 6th year. But thinking about her friends didn't have to effect on her as she thought it'd have. Two months ago, she would've burst out in tears, but now, it seemed like the gaping hole in her life was slowly being mended. Sure, she felt sad and missed her friends terribly, but her heart didn't drop upon thinking about them. Instead, she felt light as feather, and she was oddly aware of the fact that Tom was holding her hand. The place where Tom touched her seemed to send electricity coursing through her body. She couldn't understand how the gentle person next to her would grow up to destroy the world. Hermione made a decision then and there to not care about fate. She'd still try to change him, even if it was all for nothing. After all, her mother told her that it was better to do something than nothing at all.

"Welcome students and staff!" Dumbledore boomed, his eyes twinkling. Although she was annoyed about the conversation that occurred today, no one could hate the headmaster for long. She was rather shocked to find the Headmaster dressed up like the wizard in Fantasia. Dumbledore winked at the bewildered Hermione, who was shocked to find that the Headmaster knew about something that was created many years into the future.

"The headmaster sure has a weird costume." Someone around Hermione whispered. Hermione silently agreed. She understood why Voldemort was afraid of Dumbledore. Even _she _was afraid of him sometimes.

"I'd first like to thank everyone for attending. This is a marvelous ball that the Heads and Prefects have set up for us." Dumbledore looked over to the Heads. "Please enjoy tonight, but the professors have reminded me to tell you that all homework is still due on Monday." A collective groan was heard around the room. Dumbledore ignored it and continued. "And now, to start off the ball, we have our two Heads, Tom Riddle and Hermione Granger, dancing the first dance." Dumbledore motioned towards the two Heads.

Tom stood up awkwardly, but tried not to show it in his face. Hermione, on the other hand, blushed, and tried to make herself smaller and not as noticeable. If fate was real, it surely had a sick sense of humor.

"Come on." Tom murmured and dragged Hermione towards the middle of the dance floor. The music started, and Tom led the dance. Hermione was so embarrassed by this, much more so than in her 4th year, that she kept her eyes onto the floor, staring at her feet, as if trying not to trip or step on Tom's toes.

"Ouch!" Tom hissed as Hermione's heel dug into his foot. "Have you never danced once in your life? Did they not teach you that at Beauxbatons?" Tom asked, annoyed, his voice sharper than he had meant it to be.

"Sorry!" Hermione whispered, her voice an octave higher than normal due to her extreme embarrassment. She tried to concentrate harder, but only succeeded in stepping on Tom even more.

Tom winced as Hermione stepped on his toes for the umpteenth time. "Hermione." Hermione looked up into Tom's eyes and stepped on his foot again. "Ouch."

"Sorry!"

"I'll be frank. You're making a complete fool out of yourself." Hermione's face turned into a brilliant shade of scarlet. "Just relax." Tom said in between winces. "Let me lead. Don't fight it."

Hermione took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax a little.

"That's better." He said. "See? No one's going to laugh at you. They're all joining the dance."

Hermione felt her muscles relax and she fell into the flow of the music. The music slowly ended, and she felt Tom stop and let go of her waist, but she hadn't prepared herself to stop yet and felt herself losing her balance. Tom's hand immediately went around her waist and steadied her. She heard Tom draw in a breath as she regained balance. She looked down and found that she had landed on his toes.

"Sorry!" She squeaked, immediately stepping away.

"Don't worry." Tom smiled. "I lost feeling in my toes after the tenth time you stepped on them."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh. "I'll go get you some ice for that!"

Hermione returned to Tom, who was sitting on the side, massaging his toes. "Here." Hermione said, handing the bag of ice to Tom.

Tom grimaced and took the ice. "Are you always this clumsy?"

"Only when I'm embarrassed." Hermione answered. "In my fourth year, we had a ball, and Victor K-" Hermione quickly caught herself. "Kane asked me to the ball. Poor bloke."

Tom raised his eyebrow at Hermione, apparently catching her mistake, but said nothing of it. "Yes, poor bloke indeed." Tom said, feigning sympathy and shaking his head. "Tell me, have you ever tripped in front of people on stage while going up to receive a prestigious award?"

"Yes." Hermione felt herself blushing again while recalling to Tom the incident in elementary school, before she knew she was a witch. Tom clutched his stomach as he laughed, tears streaming down his eyes.

"It's not funny! I'm just accident prone!" Hermione pouted, playfully hitting Tom on the arm.

"Accident prone barely covers it. That's just the tip of the iceberg." Tom replied, his eyes dancing, still slightly laughing from her story. Hermione stared at Tom, amazed. She had never seen Tom so high in spirits. Tom stopped laughing as he met her eyes, and they stared at each other, looking into each other's eyes, trying to figure out what the other party was thinking.

Tom was the first to pull away. "Well," He said, getting up, "Care to dance again?"

Hermione stared incredulously at him. "Aren't you worried that I'm going to step on your toes again?"

"I've got toes of steel." He winked. "Anyways, practice makes perfect. Perhaps tonight, we can lower the number of times that you step on your partner's toes in a song from 100 to just 10. " Tom extended his hand towards Hermione.

Hermione, surprised by his invitation, took his hand and allowed herself to be lead back onto the dance floor. _Yup, there is definitely hope._

--

"Hey Abraxas, look at Tom." Orion pointed from their table as he noticed Tom taking the brunette by the hand with a smile on his face.

"What's gotten into him lately?" The platinum blonde scowled.

"I don't know, but it's not like him. Tom Riddle is many things, but I know that he's not the type of guy that would go for a Gryffindor." Orion spat.

"I bet it's that Hermione Granger girl. She probably cursed him or something. Now he's acting all gentleman-like. He's been brainwashed." Abraxas said.

"We've got to do something."

No one noticed the two Slythernins get up from their seats and exit the Great hall.

Like? Love? Hate? Despise? Think it's absolutely dreadful? That's okay! :) Please write a review. It's that niftly little purplish button down there. Yup! You see it? Yea! Now click it! And start typin'! :)

haha. Thanks for reading Chapter 6 and i'll see you at chapter 7! :D Let's see what happens next? :0 Will the Slytherins do something to our dear Hermie? ONLY TIME WILL TELL! (dun dun dun)

As you can probably tell, i am very hyper right now. :P Lack of sleep tends to do that to me :)


	8. Chapter 7

Hey guys :) Today, i logged on to my computer and found that some error had occured and all my files were screwed up /

But then it got fixed and everything, so yay! :D I wasn't going to upload this chapter today, but this event made me think that i should upload it incase the computer screws up again and i lose all my work! OH NO! :(

Haha, so enjoy chapter 7 :) I'm not sure what i think about this chapter though... how bout you tell me? :D

**Disclaimer: I am no JK Rowling. Obviously. Because if i were, i'd be chilling in my huge house and partying with Daniel Radcliff. So yeah. Still not JK Rowling. **

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Chapter 7

It was the early morning, and the two Heads were returning to their rooms. They were exhausted, but in good spirits. Tom and Hermione fell down on the coach once they reached the common room and just sat there, too tired to move and too lazy to go to their respective rooms. A comfortable silence spread throughout the room, Tom could hear Hermione's steady breathing and thought that she had fallen asleep. He looked over and found that her eyes were closed. She really did look like an angel.

"Hermione? Are you asleep?" He whispered.

Her eyes opened slowly. "Nope. Just doing some thinking."

"What're you thinking about?"

"Just my friends."

"Care to tell me about it?"

"Maybe sometime in the future." Hermione's voice barely a whisper as she closed her eyes. Tom stared at her for a moment, curiosity welling up inside of him. He realized he didn't really now much about her, besides the little outbreak they had a month ago, when they both yelled their pasts out for the world to hear. Tom thought back to the time when he first saw her. She was in pretty bad shape, he could still see the bruises that she had all over her body, and her eyes full of despair, her frustrated voice echoing through the hall as she yelled random sweets names at the entrance to Dumbledore's office. It occurred to him now that it was strange that she had so many bruises and that she, the transfer student, had to meet Dumbledore rather than the other way around. Was she really a transfer student? Or was there another story behind her?

Tom sighed. He was probably over thinking it again. He tended to do that a lot, and it made him more paranoid than he liked. He picked Hermione up from the coach, carefully holding her, trying not to wake her up, and carried her to her room, placing her down on her bed and putting the covers onto her. He looked back at her sleeping figure one more time before closing her door and returning to his room.

Tom Riddle lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering what's happened to him these past months. He'd been planning to take over the wizarding world for Merlin's sake! And now he'd not only danced with a Gryffindor (He could just use the "We're heads and we had to dance together because Dumbledore said so" excuse), but he'd also become friends with her. The Dark Lord side of him was disgusted at what he'd just done. He'd actually thought that she was _beautiful._ He'd never thought anything was remotely beautiful. But the other side of him, the not-so-Dark-Lord-y side of him, argued that she was beautiful, and he was just being an idiot. Change is good, no one said that it was bad.

Tom's head hurt from the internal argument that he had in his head. It seemed that over the past two months, he'd developed multiple personalities inside his head. Maybe it was time to check into St. Mungo's.

--

The excitement from the Ball had died down after a week and classes resumed to normal. Well, most of it anyways. There was the usual gossip after the ball; Hermione had experienced it first hand when she and Victor Krum went to the Yule Ball together. However, she hadn't expected people to be gossiping about her and Tom. She'd hear snippets of conversations while she walked by in the hallways, or when they were patrolling together.

"You know, I bet they're going out," or "Tom's actually pretty cute."

Hermione's hand itched to take her wand and send a silencing charm towards them, but she knew that it would be disorderly conduct, especially as the Head Girl. She was to be a good example for everyone, and although she loved being Head Girl, sometimes the title came back and bit her right back in the butt.

"So Hermione. Do you like Tom?" Clarice asked suggestively one day after classes. "The whole school is buzzing about your relationship. After all, he's Head Boy and you're the Head Girl!"

"No Clarice, it's not like that." Hermione grumbled, hand flying towards her wand again.

"Come on! I know you like him!"

"I don't like Tom Riddle. Okay?" Hermione yelled, a little too loud. "I wouldn't like a guy that is more interested in school than me." Hermione said jokingly.

"He really does care about school a lot, doesn't he? He's so smart and his grades are always so good…" Clarice said, taking the bait, luring her out of the Tom-Hermione gossip conversation.

Little did Hermione know that someone else had unintentionally heard part of their conversation.

--

Tom was avoiding Hermione. She knew it. And it was getting on her nerves. Hermione hated to be avoided unless she did something wrong, and she was absolutely sure that she did nothing wrong.

_Maybe he's returned to his old ways again._ Hermione thought glumly. _That would suck. Back to square one again if that's the case. _Hermione thought she'd made some progress. Actually, she'd thought she'd made a huge amount of progress. _Okay, maybe he's just embarrassed about the Ball. I bet it's his first time asking someone to dance. _She hoped it was that reason and not the first one.

Hermione decided to test her theory out at Lunch the next day. Hermione walked purposefully into the Great Hall and sat down next to her friends, making sure she had a clear view of Tom. He was sitting next to his future Death Eaters again, and that made Hermione nervous. Throughout lunch, she'd sneak a peak over to see if any of his behavior had changed back into Dark Lord mode. Not once did Tom look up from his plate, as if he sensed that she was looking at him and didn't wish to have eye contact. Before lunch ended, she looked over one more time, only to find Tom Riddle looking at her with an emotionless expression. When she locked eyes with him, his face quickly tensed into a frown, then into somewhat of a glare. He then stood up and stalked out of the Great Hall to his next class.

Hermione wanted to scream out loud. She couldn't believe this! After all this time, she'd actually believed that they'd moved on from the I-hate-you phase. She stabbed her food and shoveled them into her mouth, chewing violently. Clarice and Jake were watching Hermione with indifference, as her facial expressions quickly changed from curious to anger. They've learned not to say anything when Hermione as mad or frustrated about something as to not endanger themselves from being hexed into the next century. An angry Hermione was a force to be reckoned with.

--

Tom's buddies at the Syltherin table smirked at each other as they watched Hermione's reaction. Looks like all they had to do was talk to Tom about their little problem.

Orion Black pretended to complain. "Aww. I wanted to do something to Ms. Head Girl. We'd even planned something out for her!"

Abraxas Malfoy replied, "That's okay Orion. Less work for us to do." With that said, Abraxas Malfoy got up from the table and strolled out of the Great Hall, followed by Orion Black. The two Slytherins were in a good mood, and that was _never _a good thing. "Besides, if anything goes wrong, we have a plan to fall back on."

--

Tom, on the other hand, was in a foul mood. He'd just heard Hermione talking about him to her friend, Clarice, and it wasn't about something good. Tom Riddle wasn't always uptight about school. He could have fun… when he wanted to.

It didn't help that his "acquaintances" had talked to him and addressed the very subject that had his inner two "Toms" arguing inside his head everyday. He had to admit, Abarxas and Orion were right in the fact that he had let a certain Hermione Granger distract him from his goals. And what were his goals? Before, it was to take over the wizarding world and become the most powerful wizard that the world has ever seen. Now, he realized that he wasn't so sure. Was this all the works of Hermione Granger? Had she been the temptress that had been sent to tempt him off his path? He could feel his temper rising as he realized what an idiot he'd been these past weeks. He'd actually thought that she was a friend. _Ha! _Inside his mind, he felt the Dark-Lord part of him pushing the "Good Tom" away, locking him in the closet at the back of his mind.

--

Hermione was furious. Throughout the whole day, she'd been trying to get a word with Mr. Stupid Dark Lord, but every time, his annoying evil posse kept getting in the way. Lucky for them they were in class, or they would've received the same treatment that Draco Malfoy had received in her third year- her fist connecting with their noses. She was also thoroughly tempted to spill her potion onto his goonies during Potions class, which would've resulted in a nasty blisters forming all over their body (which would've been an improvement), but Hermione's darn conscience kept her in check. Not that Slughorn would buy their story that she purposely spilled it on them. Slughorn, much like in the future, thought of Hermione as one of his star students, and if it was her word against theirs, she was sure Slughorn would believe her. She could hear Draco's voice echoing in her head that she should've been sorted into Slytherin. Hermione would've found the fact that she heard 1944's ferret's grandson's voice in her head amusing had she not been a particularly horrible mood.

Hermione sighed loudly. _What am I going to do now? _She lay sprawled out on the couch in the Head's common room, staring at the ceiling. Before long, her mind just shut down and she proceeded to find familiar shapes in the ceiling, trying to forget about the problem at hand. The cackle of the fireplace prevented the common room from being eerily quiet and spread warmth throughout the room. Hermione closed her eyes, blocking all thoughts of Tom Riddle out of her mind. She realized she hadn't relaxed like this in a long time. Hermione looked at the flames in the fireplace, watching the reds and yellows blend together as they burned. The whole room started to blur.

Hermione found herself on the Hogwarts Express alone, by herself. It didn't seem weird that none of her friends were with her, she was content and felt safe and warm. All of a sudden, Hermione felt a feeling that seemed all too familiar to her; the feeling of her warmth being sucked out of her body and all the happy memories of her past forgotten. She felt herself gasp for air as despair hit her like a wrecking ball, causing her to collapse on the ground, her muscles unable to move, preventing her from getting her wand out of her robes to cast the Patronus. The hooded figure got closer, but Hermione couldn't move. Two words appeared in her head as the black shape inched towards her: _Dementor's Kiss. _Hermione closed her eyes, waiting for her soul to be sucked up. It was then a silver whisper appeared, and then solidified into a Corporeal Patronus and chased after the robed creature, preventing Hermione from being able to identify its shape. Hermione searched for the caster of Patronus and saw two gray, almost silver orbs peering at her with curious eyes. Hermoine felt her body warming up after the Dementor had left and when she regained movement in her muscles, she struggled to upright herself and graciously thank the person, only to find that he/she had disappeared without a trace.

She woke up. Hermione looked around, confused, only to find that she was still at Hogwarts in the Heads' Dorm. The fire had died down significantly, now only small licks of fire that momentarily lit the dark room. She scolded herself for not doing any of her homework, got up from the couch, removing the green and silver blanket that was on top of her, and went back to her room to sleep for the night. It was obvious that she wasn't going to get any work done. Plus, she had a Heads' meeting tomorrow and Godric knows that she needed all the energy she could get to confront Tom Riddle.

Hermione eyes opened to see the clock to see that it was already 8:45. The meeting starts at 9:00. _Damn it. If I run, I can still make it._ Ripping her blanket off of her, she rushed to get dressed. _Looks like I have to skip Breakfast again. _Hermione ran till her calves were burning, reaching the meeting room two minutes before 9:00. Most of the prefects were already there, chatting amiably amongst themselves and looking around, Hermione saw Tom Riddle in the corner; not paying attention to the disheveled Hermione Granger that had just entered the room in a hurry.

The meeting went by rather slowly, the prefects weren't contributing much, making it last longer than it should have. Finally, all the times for the month were ironed out and finalized and the meeting was adjourned. Hermione gathered her papers and turned around to confront Tom, only to see his robes disappearing behind the door as he exited the room. Scowling, Hermione stuffed the parchments and plans back into her bag and rushed after him.

_Oh, you're not getting away that easily Voldie. _

And the chase was on. It was very difficult for Hermione to keep up with is long strides, forcing her to run to keep up. Hermione turned the corner of the hallway to their dorm, only to find it empty. She neither heard nor saw Tom Riddle enter the Heads' dorm. _Where'd he go? _Hermione wished that she had the Marauder's map to aid her in her pursuit, but only realized that it didn't exist and wouldn't exist for another 20 or so years. Defeated, she entered the dorm room.

"Why were you following me?" Tom's cold voice asked, making Hermione jump and the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. She hadn't expected Tom to be in the common room.

His eyes stared at her blankly, waiting for her answer. Finding her voice, she replied, "I wasn't following you. I was merely coming back to my room. You realize that we share the Heads' Dorm, don't you. It's pretty obvious that we would be going the same way if we were trying to reach the same destination." Hermione looked at Tom, triumphant, only to find a smirk on his face that scared her.

"Why'd you go the long way, then?" Tom asked, eyes looking at her dangerously. Hermione hadn't realized that Tom had lured her the long way. _Shoot. _

"Stay away from me, Granger." Tom said, turning around to return to his room.

"I thought we were friends. Why're you ignoring me?" Hermione said defiantly. Tom's eyes stayed cold and his expression hard.

"I heard you didn't like people that were more interested with their studies than friendship."

Hermione was puzzled, then the memory of her conversation with Clarice came up. Hermione was about to clear everything up when Tom continued talking.

"Leave me alone Granger. Don't talk to me. I'm not your friend and I never wanted to be."

"Then why'd you ask me to dance?"

"We're Heads. Dumbledore asked us to dance together. Given the choice, I would've chosen anyone before you to dance with."

"Then why'd you ask me to dance again after the Heads dance?" Hermione asked defiantly. She saw a flicker of emotion in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared, making Hermione think that she imagined it. But Hermione knew that Tom was good at hiding his emotions and it took a trained eye to be able to see them.

"Someone must've slipped something into my drink." Tom said.

_That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard. _"What was it called, Tom? Because with all my years of potions, I'm sure I've never heard of a potion that allows you to have a life and have a good time." Hermione joked around.

Apparently Tom didn't catch that joke, and his expression turned hard. Tom turned around and headed towards his room without a word. When he reached his door, he turned to look at Hermione. "We're not friends, mudblood." With that said, he entered his bedroom.

Hermione blinked. _Mudblood? Mudblood?! _Of all her years at Hogwarts, she'd been called that multiple times. It stopped bothering her after the first year. But why did it hurt so much coming from Tom?

Hermione sat down on the nearest couch, still in shock. She felt something wet drop onto her hand. Her thoughts were in turmoil and her brain was playing the events of the past few months in her head. She'd gone so far! Only to have one stupid comment overheard by stupid Tom Riddle. Groaning in frustration, she couldn't believe that Riddle had taken her it so seriously. _It was a bloody joke! _

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Just when you thought things were going well... oh darn :)

Haha. Please write a review for this chapter :D I'd LOVE to hear from you! And thanks to everyone that has written a review and please continue to do so! :)

The more reviews, the faster i write. :D

Anywho, please be patient and continue reading and reviewing!

-CCC


	9. Chapter 8

Hey guys, i'm so terribly sorry that it took me so long to update. :( I have really bad procrastination habits and i kept putting it off till later. sweatdrop

So i finally told myself that i was going to finish this darn chapter. It's not as long as i'd like it to be, so maybe i'll come back and edit later.

So without further ado, here's chapter 8! (OH! And don't forget to write a review for me!)

**Disclaimer: If i were JK Rowling, i'd be throwing my money into the air and rolling around in it, not writing fanfiction. DUH!**

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Chapter 8

"Whhhgunenbwnunredle?" Jake asked while devouring Hermione's pile of Chocolate frogs she had gotten from her Hogsmeade trip a month after the ball.

"He said 'what's going on between you and Riddle?" Clarice said, deciphering what Jake had meant to say had his mouth not been full of chocolate. "I've been meaning to ask you that."

Hermione sighed. "Nothing. Nothing's going on."

"Urgusur?"

"He says are you sure? Did you accidentally pour some potion on him during NEWTS class or something?" Clarice translated, adding another question of her own.

"No." Grumbled Hermione. It'd been two weeks since the "incident" and Hermione and Tom were still as close as ever. If by "close" you meant at each other's throats close, then yes, they were very close indeed.

Hermione hated to be ignored, especially if she was being ignored by the future Dark Lord that could destroy the future if he were not changed.

So these few weeks, their relationship had moved from flat out ignoring each other to the future Draco-Hermione-arguing-every-moment-possible-and-blaming-each-other relationship. So as you can tell, many of the students tried to steer clear from the two Heads when they argued. Although the chance of getting stunned or having something thrown at you was small due to the fact that the Heads still tried to behave like Heads and refrained from hurting anyone, better safe than sorry! No, the other students would like to stay out of the Hospital Wing and away from the hospitality of Madame Dona and her disgusting bubbling sleeping potion.

And no matter how much Hermione wanted to dig her heel onto his foot for being a bloody idiot, she refrained herself and only had a few "mishaps" during class in which she accidentally dropped various objects on him.

Tom Riddle sucked in a breath when the cauldron went in contact with his little toe.

"Sorry Professor! I'm very clumsy this morning! I didn't sleep very well last night." Hermione stated innocently.

"That's quite alright Hermione. Are you feeling sick? Do you need to see Madame Dona?"

"No, that's okay professor."

"Okay Ms. Granger. Just notify me if you feel ill. And make sure you're more careful when you're making the potion today so you don't spill." Professor Slughorn said pleasantly, not detecting any mishap between the two Heads' behaviors.

Tom sent a glare towards Hermione, but she just ignored it, going back to work. Within the first ten minutes of class, the atmosphere had become strained, and everyone could feel it, everyone except the oblivious Professor Slughorn. When he dismissed the class, the other students leapt out of their seats and hurried out of the classroom, trying to put as much distance from the two quarreling Heads as possible.

But damn, that boy was patient, (either that or had no emotion) and never spoke up about Hermione to her or any of the professors. A month passed, Christmas was coming, snow was falling, and still Tom Riddle put up with it. It was at times like this that made Hermione Granger want to yell out in frustration and kick something, and kick something she did, only to inflict more pain on her than to the chair. And that brought her back to her senses. Funny how pain can make everything make sense. Hermione remembered her task and what she needed to do; to change Tom Riddle for the better. This unleashed a new wave of tactics, always annoying but never getting her in trouble.

Hermione walked slowly to her common room, snickering as she remembered the look on Riddle's face after the prank she pulled on him. A few years ago, Hermione would've never intentionally done this, but now, she thought it was pretty funny. Peeves would've been proud. No, the Marauders themselves would be proud!

Hermione's mood quickly diminished as she crossed the threshold into the Head's dorm, only to find Tom Riddle waiting to pounce on her like a cat.

_Damn._

Hermione stared at Tom, waiting for the inevitable, only to be met by silence. Whoever said silence is golden was never on the receiving end of a glare from Tom Riddle. No, silence was scary.

Pretending nothing was wrong; Hermione gave Tom a fake smile and proceeded to climb the stairs up to her room. She could feel his eyes on her as she made her way towards the stairs, boring a hole in the back of her head.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" A low voice asked, so quiet that Hermione thought she imagined.

Hermione whirled around, brown eyes meeting piercing dark grey eyes. She could see a storm brewing inside of him through the doorway of his soul and knew that something was going to happen.

"E… excuse me?"

"Why do you insist on getting in my way in everything I do? Why won't you bloody leave me alone like the rest of the Gryffindors?"

"Has it ever occurred to you I'm not like the other Gryffindors?"

"Yes! No! I don't know! Why're you so confusing?"

"How the bloody hell should I know why you think I'm confusing? Tom, I wanted to be your friend! Is it such a bad thing to want to be your friend?"

" Why couldn't you have stayed in your own little world and with your friends?"

Hermione felt like she'd been stabbed in the chest. _Because you killed them all_. Moments of the last battle flashed through her head at the thought of her friends, all falling from the death curse. Tears filled her eyes, tears that hadn't resurfaced in three months, and fell down her cheeks. Hermione looked down at her feet, trying to control herself, trying to hide her tears.

"Why won't you just leave me fucking alone?" Tom yelled.

"Because I can't." Hermione whispered, never looking up, before running up the stairs and into her bedroom, but not before Tom noticed a single solitary tear fall down to the ground.

Tom stood there, staring at the spot where the tear had fallen down onto the carpet.

_DAMN! Why am I such a bastard? _

Tom kicked the table, not feeling it due to the immense anger and self-loathing he felt. He'd made plans to destroy the wizarding world for merlin's sake! And even then his conscience didn't kick in. What was it that made her, the transfer student from Beauxbatons so special? Why did she make him feel like a jerk? A bastard? A bloody idiot?

Before she'd entered his world, everything was simple; Tom knew what he had to do exactly, he knew how he should feel, how he should act, everything. Now, it seemed his world was crumbling down, the world he'd so meticulously built, brick by brick, stone by stone.

Tom scowled as he walked towards the stairs, still trying to figure Hermione Granger out. What was it about her so important to him?

"Damn it!" He cursed as he felt the aftermath of kicking the table. His toe was definitely going to bruise later, if not already. Tom limped up the stairs and into his room and fell onto his bed and instantly fell asleep.

That night, Hermione starred in his dream. She was running in a field laughing, and Tom was entranced. He couldn't stop staring; staring at her curls as the bounced with ever step she took and her eyes that sparkled like the stars…

Tom woke up. That was it. Her eyes. Tom had a solution.

If he didn't look into her chocolate eyes, then he wouldn't fall under the spell.

Tom smirked. No one messed with Lord Voldemort.

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Hope you liked it! :) Please write a review! Thanks!

-CCC

Next chapter will be Christmas! ;)


	10. Chapter 9

Hey everyone! :) Here's the Christmas Chapter that i promised you :)

Thanks everyone for the reviews, i love hearing from you! :D I also thank everyone that's given me constructive criticism, i definently will go back and rewrite some of the stuff after i've finished the story.

I wasn't going to post this chapter up yet, but seeing as i will be out of town for the rest of the week, i decided to :)

So please enjoy, i'm not sure if i'll be able to update again next week, but definently expect a chapter in 2 weeks. I've already started Chapter 10 :D

Please write a review for me! :) It makes me happy.

**Disclaimer: I am not the rich and famous JK Rowling.**

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Chapter 9

Hermione knew that Tom was avoiding her again; she could see his eyes turn away once she entered the room, but she did nothing to change it. It seemed every time she thought of Tom, she thought of her friends and family, and she found it was difficult to look at him, even though the current Tom Riddle wasn't the evil malicious Dark Lord yet. _Yet. _

Hermione trudged through Hogsmeade with a heavy heart; the thought of Christmas without Harry, Ron, and the Weasleys at the Burrow made it so much harder to engage in the celebrations. She felt bad for doing this to Clarice and Jake, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull herself out of her thoughts.

But, Christmas must go on, and Hermione still had to shop for her friends in this time period, forcing her to go out into the streets of Hogsmeade. Hermione withdrew money from an emergency account that Dumbledore had created and told her about in the future. She'd gotten Jake some prank items, which was by far no comparison to the merchandise in the Weasley Twin's joke shop, but she was sure would make Jake happy nonetheless. She'd gotten Clarice a romantic fictional book, which she knew Clarice would like, due to the fact that she was a hopeless romantic. And of course, along with the gifts, she gave each of them a bag of sweets from Honeydukes.

Now Hermione encountered a problem. Should she give anything to Tom? Okay, so he'd argued with her many times and sent her countless glares, and was currently ignoring her, but at one time, he _had _been civil for a time being and it _seemed _like they were friends. Then Hermione remembered what Dumbledore had told her about Tom's childhood before they went Horcrux hunting, and that just about convinced Hermione.

_What would you give the future Dark Lord that you were trying to convert to the Light side? _

An hour later, Hermione emerged from the store; satisfied at the gift she'd bought for Tom. It was simple, but she felt it best suited him. After all, she was sure he didn't need fake wands that turned your hair purple when you used it or any other humorous prank objects like that. Tom didn't seem like the type of guy that would enjoy pranks. After all, he'd been the one that was bullied at his orphanage, and she was sure that he wouldn't like to be reminded of that. Especially when she found out what he had done to the bully. And Hermione was absolutely sure he wouldn't want a fictional romance novel. Yes, this gift would be perfect.

Hermione skipped back the Hogwarts, her spirits lifted, and excited for the first time since the Halloween ball.

After wrapping and delivering her presents to Jake and Clarice, and also warning Jake that the present would explode in his face if he opened it early, Hermione wondered what she was going to do with Tom's present. _Technically, _they weren't friends, considering they weren't talking to each other, so she couldn't very well hand him the present, could she? He'd probably think it was hexed or something. She couldn't leave it on his desk either. Finally, Hermione decided to shove the present at the back of the Christmas tree in their dorm, against the wall. That way, he probably wouldn't notice it until Christmas and wouldn't ask her about it.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 - 0

Tom wasn't a big fan of Christmas. Sure, he'd receive some sweets and such from his acquaintances and some worthless junk from some girls that had a crush on him, but his past Christmases at the orphanage sucked all the holiday cheer out of him. So when the Christmas gifts started appearing under the tree, he'd given it no thought and opened each of them, ignoring the rule of opening the gifts on Christmas.

He wasn't surprised to receive pretty much the same things he received last year: same candy, a couple Dark Arts books, some new supplies, it wasn't new to him. He'd learned not to expect anything different since he was put into the orphanage. But unbeknownst to Tom, this Christmas would be different.

Tom returned to his desk, not having a second thought about Christmas.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Hermione woke up on Christmas Eve, feeling a familiar wave of nostalgia. She groaned, letting the familiar memories flood back to her. She dug through her leather purse, the only thing that she had brought from the future which she hadn't touched since she'd gotten here and had almost forgotten about, and found the picture with Harry, Ron, and her from 4th year, smiling and running around the lake. She felt tears in her eyes as she remembered that day, before Cedric had died, before Voldemort had risen, before everything that had sent her world toppling down. And now, she was in 1944, trying to change the future, with no way of going back, even if she should succeed in changing Tom.

Hermione sighed. It was Christmas Eve for Merlin's sake! She still had friends here, and they were expecting her in the Gryffindor common room for the annual Christmas Eve party. She should keep a happy face to prevent them from worrying about her. Hermione got up, changed, and made her way over to the Gryffindor common room.

Many laughs, sweets, and butterbeers later, Hermione climbed slowly back to her room, her stomach full after so much food and her head light after the butterbeers. They'd decided to open up the presents since it was past midnight, and technically it was Christmas. She'd squealed in delight at the books that her friends had given her, thanking them continuously until they were forced to threaten her with a wand so she'd stop thanking them. She was extremely pleased and only thought of the usual Burrow Christmases three times the whole night.

After all the excitement, Hermione, now extremely exhausted, slowly walked up to her room and grabbed the picture by her nightstand and smiled a sad smile.

"Merry Christmas Harry. Merry Christmas Ronald." Hermione whispered before drifting back to sleep.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom was up at the same time as usual and walked towards the Christmas tree where he had kept his stash of sweets. No sleeping in for Tom, as he refrained from attending the festivities that had commenced the night before. His comrades had asked him to go, but he refused. Tom preferred the quiet. Munching on a licorice wand, Tom was about to go do some homework, but noticed a box wrapped in brown paper that was stuffed at the back of the Christmas tree. Tom gave it a weird look. Who else would give him a present?

Tom crouched down and reached for it, grunting as he was forced to get onto the ground because the annoying secret sender had thought it'd be funny to push the present at the very back of the Christmas tree, against the wall. It didn't help that the tree was in a corner.

Then he realized. _You're a wizard you bloody idiot._

"Accio present." Tom said with a lazy wave of his wand.

The present flew out from under the Christmas tree and landed in his outstretched hand. Tom could feel the look of shock on his face when he saw his name written on the box in familiar, elegant script.

_It's from Hermione. _

Curious, he carefully tore off the brown wrapping paper, revealing a brown box. Tom opened it and found a shiny, black leather book, no journal, Tom realized as he opened it. Along with the journal, he found a new quill and inkwell, something that he had needed for a long time.

Tom smiled. It was a very thoughtful gift, possible the first time he'd received such a gift. Tom went to put the gift in his room when a slip of parchment fell to the ground at his feet.

_For your thoughts. _

_Hermione_

Tom frowned. He didn't get Hermione anything. Man, she always made him feel like a wanker. He should probably say thank you, at the very least. Which reminded him, she should be up by now. He looked over at her door. Still shut.

Tom walked silently up the stairs and stood in front of her door. His hand reached for the door to knock, but he pulled it back. _What if I'm making this too big of a deal? It's just a gift. _Tom groaned. He walked back down the stairs and sat down on the nearest sofa. He'd just wait till Hermione got up.

Two hours later, Tom, although very practiced at being patient, was losing his patience. He'd stayed with her for the whole year and he knew that Hermione never slept in so late. He walked back up the stairs and knocked lightly on her door.

"Hermione?" He whispered, not loud enough to wake her up if she was still sleeping but loud enough for her to hear if she were not. He heard shuffling in her room and opened the door slowly. There was Hermione, lying under her covers, still fast asleep. Tom knelt down by her bed and watched her sleep, the slow rhythm of her breath slightly calming to his senses. He looked at her face and was shocked to see it wet with tears.

"Hermione." He lightly shook her. "Hermione."

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, and Tom had the weird thought of what it would be like if he saw her wake up next to him like that every morning, but pushed it quickly out of his head.

As he stared into her still sleepy brown eyes, all thoughts of avoiding her disappeared. It was true, her eyes did draw him in, they were so deep and warm, and he felt like he could get lost in them.

"Tom?" She asked while slowly sitting up, revealing the picture frame she'd been hugging while she slept. She wiped her tears from her face and the sleep out of her eyes. "What're you doing here?"

"I… I was…" Tom coughed. He couldn't very well tell her that he was worried about her, could he? "Merry Christmas." He said, avoiding the question altogether.

Tom's reply brought on a new flood of tears from Hermione, much to Tom's surprise.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Hermione choked out.

Tom hated girls with active waterworks. He actually sought to avoid them, whoever it was. But the sight of Hermione crying tugged at his heartstrings. Without thinking, actually, he hadn't done much thinking when he was around Hermione Granger, his arm went awkwardly around Hermione, trying to comfort her. He felt Hermione stiffen in surprise when she felt his arm go around her, but later relaxed into his chest. He realized now that there was much more behind those brown eyes than he had imagined; emotions that he couldn't decipher, which only made him respect her even more and even more curious about the mysterious "transfer student."

"Thank you." She whispered. And they stayed like that for a moment, maybe an hour, maybe only five minutes, but to Tom, it seemed like everything was at peace, for the first time in his life. He ignored the nagging in his head, telling him that she wasn't worth it, that she was just a witch, but he knew that it wasn't true. Hermione Granger was worth it, and she was a spectacular witch. His voice in his head quieted down to a whisper before disappearing altogether.

"I miss my friends." Hermione whispered. Tom looked down at her and saw her eyes were closed. He thought he was sleep talking until she opened her them and stared up at him with sad eyes.

"So you want to talk about it?"

And so Hermione talked about her friends in her picture, how brave they were and how amazing they were, and how much she missed them. How they couldn't take care of themselves and were amazing at Quidditch. Tom felt a pang of jealously as she talked so highly of her two friends. And then she told him that they had died, and Tom's heart went out to her.

"I bet you hate the wizard that killed them, don't you?" Tom asked.

And then she did the strangest thing. She smiled. Not a bitter smile, but a real smile, a smile that reached her eyes, making them sparkle. "No." Hermione replied. "I don't."

"You don't?" Tom asked, confused.

"No. Because I know he's changed." And with that one confession, Tom's respect for her escalated for the second time that day.

Then they just sat silently, until Tom managed to persuade her to go down the Christmas dinner.

"By the way." Tom said before leaving her room to let her freshen up. "I love the gift. Thank you." Tom flashed a genuine smile and shut the door behind him.

Hermione glanced over at her picture of Harry and Ron. Maybe this Christmas wouldn't be so bad.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

After dinner, Hermione and Tom spent the rest of the night polishing off the rest of their Christmas candy.

"I've never done this before." Hermione groaned. "Ron was always the stupid one who ate all his candy on Christmas."

Tom chuckled. He was too full to comment.

"So I guess we're friends now?" Hermione asked.

Tom stayed silent. The gears in his head were turning, and he was contemplating on what it meant to be friends with her.

"Tom?"

After a few moments, Tom smiled.

"Yea, friends."

* * *

It's Like Christmas in July! :D

Thanks for reading, please write me a review on what you think! And for those of you that have been writing reviews, please continue to do so!

Love you guys!

CCC


	11. Chapter 10

Hey everyone

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry it took so long to update. I lied. I had major writer's block and I've been overwhelmed with swimming and school and all that good stuff, but now, I hope I'm back!

A bunch of awesome stuff has happened so far! Breaking Dawn came out! YAY! :D It didn't exactly live up to my expectations, but it was still pretty good. Team Edward forever! I can't wait till the Twilight movie! I already have my Edward Cullen/Rob Pattenson poster up in my room!

Brisingr also came out yesterday! I admit, i peeked towards the end. We'll just have to see how it turns out!

I really enjoyed writing this chapter! It was great fun writing in Tom's perspective. This chapter mostly displays his thoughts, but has a couple of Hermione's as well.

This chapter is dedicated to roonilwazlib1992 for chastising me about not updating. I apologize!

Please enjoy! I'll try to update as soon as I can!

* * *

Chapter 10

Tom glanced around nervously. He hadn't been this anxious before. Not even when he first told Orion and Abraxas of his master plan. But now, that seemed like the distant past. Right now, World Domination wasn't on his mind. He had another problem that left his palms sweaty and his mind working a million times faster than usual, going through the possible ways that the situation could go wrong. He could trip and his face could fall into someone's dinner, he could spit while he was talking. It didn't help much that he had waited till the end of the day to do this, because all that did was intensify the number of bad thoughts as the day went on.

It was simple. Walk up. Smile. Give it. Walk away. So simple and only required a few minutes of his time, yet Tom was sitting at the opposite side of the Great Hall, wiping his sweaty hands off his pants, receiving strange looks from the people around him.

"Hey Tom. Are you sick?" Abraxas asked.

"Should we be worried about the steak?" Orion asked, seriously concerned about the possibility of food poisoning. "I bet the Gryffindors did it. They must've sneaked in some potions or something because they knew there'd be no way they could beat us in Quidditch this year…"

But Tom wasn't listening. He was too busy looking nervously over at the brunette sitting across the hall, laughing at when her friend, Jack or something of the sort, had dug his elbow into the potatoes and squirted out the pumpkin juice he was drinking when one of his friends had done an imitation, and what seemed to be a pretty good one at that, of Professor Binns.

It seemed the Gryffindor table was much more cheerful than his side of the Great Hall, and it seemed that it was much more lighter too. It was so much more different than the Slytherin table, and he added the difference in houses to his growing lists of "cons."

Taking a huge gulp of his pumpkin juice, wishing that it was some kind of alcohol, preferably firewhiskey, he got up, not even seeing Abraxas and Orion's confused expressions, and headed towards the Gryffindor table. Halfway there, Tom made a detour, his brain's loud protests finally convincing him to give the damn thing to Granger in the common room.

Of course, he soon regretted this, considering that his brain had been the reason why he hadn't been able to give it to the Gryffindor Head all day. Quite frankly, he was being pushed around by his own brain. _I'm going bloody senile. _

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

After waiting for Hermione to finish up her dinner for the past half hour, Tom was just about to blow up the grandfather clock in the Head's dorm. Of course, it would've been very difficult to explain should Hermione walk in on the scene, with Tom standing amidst the remains of old clock that was probably older than Dumbledore himself. So, all Tom could do was sit at the couch, balling his hands into a fist to prevent himself from reaching into his pocket and Avada-ing the clock.

Of course, sitting in a large room by oneself, trying to convince that one was not going crazy did not do well for one's mood. Tom was not particularly in a good mood when a certain brunette walked through the door, and his face, which used to hide his emotions very well, betrayed his emotion (which seemed to happen a lot more since Hermione was around, he admitted begrudgingly), and causing the brunette to stop in her tracks.

0 – 0 – 0

Hermione was startled to see Tom Riddle, the object of her thoughts glaring at her as she walked into the Common Room. _Uh oh. What did I do wrong?_

They locked eyes for a few minutes, the only noise that was heard was the Grandfather clock ticking in the background. Summoning up her Gryffindor courage, Hermione timidly greeted Tom, hoping that he couldn't sense the hesitance in her voice.

Tom stood up, still staring at Hermione as he walked over towards her. _This is not good. _She looked behind him, not wanting to look into his eyes. She noticed that he was holding something behind his back. She gulped and her heart rate accelerated. _Looks like he found out. _Hermione shut her eyes tightly and waited for Tom to reveal the wand behind his back and avada her into nothingness.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Hermione couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. She slowly opened one eye, only to see Tom's face, merely inches away from her, staring at her with a confused expression.

She yelped and jumped back, tripping on her own feet, and fell onto the hard floor.

_Oww. _She groaned. She was going to feel that tomorrow.She was startled to hear the booming laugh coming from Tom Riddle, who was leaning against the wall for support.

"What's so funny, Riddle?" Hermione questioned, raising an eyebrow at the Syltherin Head, only to be replied by a more laughs.

"Okay, okay. Stop laughing." Hermione said, trying not to reveal the hints of laughter that were threatening to show itself on her face. She wasn't only laughing at how she fell, but also at her ridiculous notion that caused her to panic after seeing Tom glaring at her.

"Now help me up. I think I just broke my bum." Hermione commanded after the loud laughter died down.

Tom smirked and reached down his hand that was not behind his back to help her up.

"Stop grinning like a maniac. Geez. It wasn't that funny."

"Really?" Tom asked. "Because I thought it was pretty funny. Especially that look on your face! Ha!"

Hermione glared at him. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You startled me!"

"Really? I seem to recall you're the one that closed her eyes when you saw me walking towards you. What'd you think I was going to do? Kiss you?"

The meaning of his words suddenly dawned on her. Hermione quickly looked away, her thoughts bringing her back to the moment, making her blush even more.

Tom coughed, bringing her out of her memory. She was surprised to see that Tom's face was slightly flushed, a light pink tinged his cheeks. Reaching out from behind his back, he pushed a beautifully wrapped package into her hands.

"This is for… umm… thanks for the present… Christmas." Tom managed to say.

"May I open it?" Tom merely nodded, abandoning words, as they've seemed to fail him up to this point.

Hermione slowly unwrapped the box, careful not to rip the wrapping paper, revealing what the gift that she had received.

She gasped. **(AN: WHA HA HA HA! Keep reading and you'll find out what it is!)**

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom's head snapped up when he heard the portrait hole swing open, revealing Hermione. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him staring at her.

"Hey Tom." Tom noticed the hesitance in her voice. Confused, he stood up and walked towards her. Hermione's eyes snapped shut as he walked even closer, puzzling Tom even more. He stopped within a food in front of her and leaned in to shake her, when her eyes suddenly popped open. He must've startled her, for he heard a gasp escape from her lips as she jumped back, lost her footing, and fell onto her backside.

It was silent for a minute as Tom stared in wonder at what had just happened. Then, the laughter that had been bubbling inside him erupted and he had to lean against the wall for support. It was just too… funny! The look of her face when she saw his face inches away from hers, then how it changed when she realized she was about to hit the floor… priceless!

And then she pouted and chastised him, trying to save the rest of her pride, which only succeeded in summoning a new wave of laughter from him.

She glared at him, trying to suppress the smile that was threatening to reveal itself upon her features. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You startled me!"

Tom smirked. "Really? I seem to recall you're the one that closed her eyes when you saw me walking towards you. What'd you think I was going to do? Kiss you?" Tom immediately regretted his comment, for he felt is face warming up. He looked over at Hermione, who's face was bright red, which Tom found extremely endearing. She even tried to hide it, but failed. Tom smiled and summoned up his courage.

He coughed. _This is going to be very difficult_. Tom scowled as he summoned up the words to speak to her, only to find that they came out completely and utterly wrong. He didn't even form a coherent sentence. Figuring actions spoke louder than words, he flung the gift into Hermione's hands.

Thankfully, she understood what he meant. "May I open it?" Tom gulped and nodded.

She slowly unwrapped the package, careful not to rip the paper. The time seemed to go slowly, Tom controlled his temptation to grab the damn thing and rip it apart himself. He was never one with patience.

Finally, as the last of the paper came off, revealing the gift that he had taken so long to plan out, she gasped.

_Damn. Was that a good gasp or a bad gasp?_

* * *

Fwa ha ha. That was fun. I guess you'll just have to wait till the next chapter to find out what good ol' Tommy got Hermione, huh?

Anywho, you know the drill, more reviews, more updates. And feel free to yell at me about updating. It'll make me more pressured to write faster.

Please review!

Thanks so much! CCC


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**Disclaimer**: I do note own Harry Potter in any shape or form, unfortunately.

Hey guys! I decided to update again, just because I felt so bad about not updating for a long time last time. This is dedicated to those readers that got really annoyed with me about not updating. Hope you guys enjoy this! It's not as long as I'd like it to be, but oh well.

This chapter doesn't have a big cliffhanger as last time. The reactions made me laugh! Thanks to **Ornamental Serenity, Iceon, roonilwazlib1992, Weasley is my anti-drug00, Nightcrawlerfw, Madame Dee, ViperineVampire, HopeHealer, Ankoku Dezaia**, and **enchantingelana**.

Weasley is my anti-drug00: I guess you'll just have to read and find out ;)

**Awards for Reviews:**

Funniest Review of the chapter:

Ankoku Dezaia, who threatened to find my house if i didn't update! Thanks for the laugh!

Most compelling stare Award:

ViperineVampire

Anywho, This is the moment you all have been waiting for! (drum roll please) the Gift!

Please tell me what you think! Onward to the story!

* * *

Previously, on Changing:

_She slowly unwrapped the package, careful not to rip the paper. The time seemed to go slowly, Tom controlled his temptation to grab the damn thing and rip it apart himself. He was never one with patience._

_Finally, as the last of the paper came off, revealing the gift that he had taken so long to plan out, she gasped._

_Damn. Was that a good gasp or a bad gasp?_

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom held his breath as he waited for her reaction. He had spent weeks thinking of the perfect gift, something that isn't too plain and cliché, something that Hermione would like. Needless to say, he, being the perfectionist he is, rejected a multitude of ideas, many of them would've have been great gifts, but they just weren't, well, _Hermione. _

So here he was, in this predicament, praying to Merlin that she would like it. It seemed like forever, but in reality, only a few seconds, when Hermione finally looked up and gave Tom the most dazzling smiles he's ever seen. He felt something in his chest lurch at the sight of her. Her chocolate eyes were dancing, her face lit up with a huge grin.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Hermione gaped at the beautiful gold locket that Tom had given her. _Memoria _was inscribed on the front of the locket in elegant cursive. During the war, she had left all of her precious belongings, save for the purse that she had and still carried around with her. She looked up to see Tom with a hopeful expression on his face.

"Tom… I couldn't. It's…" Hermione seemed to have lost the ability with words. She could feel herself grinning from ear to ear.

"Yes you can." Tom asserted. "Besides, you got me something. Of course I have to get you something in return. What kind of gentleman would I be?"

"But… it must've cost a fortune!" Hermione exclaimed. Even Harry and Ron never got her anything like this.

"It's no big deal." Tom stated. "I just helped around at Hogwarts, earned a little bit of money. Besides, I know the owner of the jewelry store."

Hermione was at a loss of words. Tom led her over to the couch and made her sit down. He then sat down next to her.

"Why don't you open the locket?" Tom suggested.

Hermione nodded. She opened it, only to find that there was nothing in it. Confused, she looked over at Tom, seeking answers.

Tom smiled knowingly. He grasped her hand, feeling her jump at the sudden closeness, and whispered _Memoria_. Suddenly, Hermione found herself being sucked into the locket, as if it were a pensive.

Oof. She landed on her bottom. She looked up and saw Tom's familiar smirk plastered onto his face.

"You know, I really hate it when you smirk at me."

"I know." Tom replied, smirk still stamped on his face. She continued to glare at him until he pointed to the scene in front of them. She hadn't even thought to look around and see where they were, and when she finally got around to it, she was shocked.

She saw herself and Tom, dressed in costume, smiling and laughing together while dancing on the ballroom in the Great Hall. He looked rather handsome in the sharp dress robes and cape, smiling through his mask. Wait. That was impossible. How could she be standing right here, when she was over there?

Tom sensing her confusion, explained to her, "We're in a memory, genius. Are you sure you got ten O's and one Exceeds Expectations on your OWLS? Maybe they mailed someone else's results, and you actually got T's on all of them." Tom teased.

Hermione slapped him playfully and continued to watch the scene unfold before her. Normally, she would've thrown something back at him, but she was too engrossed in the scene. It was amazing, as if she were watching a movie. It was like a Cinderella movie, except that "Cinderella" was extremely clumsy and had two left feet. She grimaced every time she stepped on his toes and laughed at the obvious pained look on "past Tom's" face as he attempted to cover it up.

After the memory was over, Hermione found herself back in the Head's dorm.

"I really am sorry about nearly breaking your toes that day." Hermione smiled embarrassedly.

Tom laughed. "I guess that means you owe me then."

"I guess so." Hermione admitted sheepishly. "So how does the locket work? How'd you get it to take you back into the past?"

"Well, it acts as a portable pensive, but it only stores your happiest memories. If you ever wish to see it, all you have to do is say _Memoria_. It's completely at random though, so the next time you use it, it may be a completely different memory."

Hermione's eyes widened. "How'd you manage to make this? It must've been a very difficult spell!" The bookworm Hermione immediately taking over. She was amazed how Tom could create a spell that could do such an amazing thing. She knew that he was a brilliant student, but she never imagined that he could do such a thing!

Tom smiled. "That's for me to know and you to find out. Besides, I have many tricks up my sleeve."

Hermione decided not to prod him further. She smiled brightly and hugged Tom. "Thank you." She whispered.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"How'd you manage to make this? It must've been a very difficult spell!"

Tom smiled. Typical of Hermione to ask about spells. What a bookworm. "That's for me to know and you to find out. Besides, I have many tricks up my sleeve."

Tom fully expected Hermione to continue on the subject, attempting to get the answer out of him. He wasn't going to tell her, of course. She may have a special place in his heart, but she didn't have that much power over him.

Hermione surprised him by throwing her arms around him. He immediately stiffened, his cheeks warming up. "Thank you." She murmured. Then he relaxed, bringing his arms around her, and hugging her in return. He breathed in, smelling her sweet scent. _Vanilla._ He mused inside his head.

"You're welcome." Tom whispered in her ear.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Woah! Where'd you get that?" Clarice asked her when she saw the beautiful gold locket that hung around Hermione's neck.

Hermione blushed. "A friend gave it to me."

Clarice raised her eyebrow. "Oh really? Then _HE _must be a very special friend. No regular friend gives you something that nice! I bet it's Tom, isn't it? I knew there was something going on between you two!"

Hermione scowled. Clarice was way too observant. Thankfully, Jake took this moment to come in and interrupt their conversation, distracting Clarice. Although Hermione knew the distraction was only temporary, that Clarice was going to confront her about it later, she welcomed it nonetheless.

"Jake!" Clarice exclaimed!

"How was detention?" Hermione winked.

Jake collapsed on the couch in the Gryffindor common room. He had received a detention for pulling a prank on Professor Binns; he charmed all of the history of magic books in the room to chase after him and snap at his heels as he ran for his life. It was probably the most active they've ever seen Professor Binns, the history of magic teacher that liked to drone on and on for the whole period. Needless to say, it was the most interesting History of Magic class that the students have ever had.

Jake groaned. "I had to clean the trophy cases without magic. And then when I was done, I had to do it all over again because it was 'clean enough'." He moaned again to emphasize the effect.

Clarice and Hermione broke out in giggles. He really reminded Hermione of Fred and George, the pranksters of her time.

"Stop being such a drama queen Jake!" Clarice exclaimed. "Besides, I have some news for you."

Jake opened one eye lazily.

"Hermione's received a gorgeous locket from her boyfriend!" Clarice squealed.

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"Oh, excuse me. Her future boyfriend!"

Hermione scowled.

"Who?" Jake inquired sleepily.

"Tom Riddle! He's pretty handsome, don't you think Hermione?"

_Yes he is. _Hermione thought. "That's besides the point! He's not my boyfriend!" Hermione gathered her books, gave one last look at Clarice, and excused herself."

"She _so _likes him. I just know it." The problem was making her admit it. "I bet Tom likes her too. After all, she's smart, gorgeous, and talented. What's not to like? Right Jake?"

Jake snored in response.

Clarice had decided. It was time to see what the Head Boy thought.

* * *

Dun Dun Dun!

You know the drill! Review please! I really want to hear from you guys!

It's kind of sad to see that there've been 7,000 plus views on this story and only 65 reviews. It makes me very sad. So please tell me how you think, or at least pop in and say hi. My goal for the next chapter is 15 reviews? Please? It's not that many, so I'm hoping to reach it! Please help me by reviewing this story! If you have a really amusing or funny review, i may give you the "Funniest review award" for next chapter! Haha. You know you want it!

Thanks again for everyone that's stuck around to read this story! See ya next chapter!

-CCC


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Hey everyone! Last time, shortly after updating Changing, I cranked out this chapter in about thirty minutes. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, it was a lot of fun!

I had set a goal for 15 reviews and I planned on waiting for those 15, but decided against it. It fell short! 14 reviews! COME ON! So this week, my goal shall be… 17.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review!

**Disclaimer : I am not JK Rowling. **

* * *

Previously, on Changing:

"_She so likes him. I just know it." The problem was making her admit it. "I bet Tom likes her too. After all, she's smart, gorgeous, and talented. What's not to like? Right Jake?"_

_Jake snored in response._

_Clarice had decided. It was time to see what the Head Boy thought._

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Hello? Earth to Tom?" Abraxas Malfoy waved his hand in front of Tom, snapping him out of his reverie. "You had that weird look on your face again."

"Yea Tom. You had a huge goofy grin on your face." Orion demonstrated by doing a very good imitation of what Tom had looked like. "Were you daydreaming about a girl? Who's the lucky or unlucky girl?" Orion prodded.

As if hearing their conversation, Penelope Parkinson's head snapped over to the spot where Tom and company were sitting.

Orion snickered. "Looks like Parkinson wishes to be the lucky girl." Tom groaned, covering his face. Tom had taken careful consideration when he was around his comrades, making sure he didn't show too much interest in the brown haired Gryffindor as to raise suspicion of their friendship. He knew that they didn't approve and would do anything to stop them. It led them off his trail, but led them to believe that there was a girl in the equation that caused his strange behavior.

And indeed, Tom did know that he had changed, and for the better. He was more cheerful and enjoyed the day more. He interacted with more people, and he smiled a lot more. His heart felt lighter and the fact that he was an orphan no longer weighed him down as it used to.

After all, spending time with someone like Hermione meant that change was inevitable. Her smile was contagious, her eyes drew you in, she was friendly and loyal; Tom was truly lucky to have her as a friend. He knew that everyone liked her; she would never hate anyone without a reason. And because of her friendliness, the entire student body accepted her, the new student from Beauxbatons.

He was ecstatic when he saw here wearing the locket. She always wore it, and Tom was extremely pleased that she had loved it. And yet, Tom continued to wonder about her mysterious past. He hoped that one-day, she would open up to him. After all, he had opened up to her and spilled his past to her.

But that brought Tom back to the annoying problem at hand. He couldn't tell Abraxas and Orion that he liked to hang out with the Head Girl. She was a Gryffindor and he a Slytherin for Merlin's sake! Plus, they were smart enough to figure out that there was indeed a girl, but they misunderstood that he thought of her in a romantic way.

So word had spread around the house that Tom Riddle had his eye on a girl, attracting girls that were disgusting, evil, and extremely annoying. The worst and most persistent being Penelope Parkinson, who was the most egotistical narcissistic girl one could ever meet.

"Hello Tom." A voice said behind her. Tom cringed. While he was thinking things over, he hadn't noticed the hag walk over. She was doing some kind of an attempt on a husky voice, but only succeeded in leaving a bitter taste in Tom's mouth.

Tom looked over the Gryffindor table, as if he were looking for help, only to find Hermione looking at him with one eyebrow raised and an amused expression on her face. He scowled and turned back to Penelope, hoping she didn't notice.

She did notice. _Damn. Why does this stupid girl choose now to be observant? _He saw Penelope glare over at Hermione and then proceed to plop herself onto Tom's lap. He gagged as a wave of sickly sweet perfume hit him like a ton of bricks.

She ran her hand across his arm, smiling seductively. Tom paled, feeling the urge to throw up the dinner he just ate. "What are you doing tonight, Tom?"

Tom heard muffled laughter in the direction where his companions sat. They were both hiding their heads within their sleeves, attempting to muffle the sound that was threatening to erupt.

_That's it. This is disgusting. _

"Excuse me Parkinson." He said, pushing her off his lap. He got up, leaving the confused Parkinson on the bench. Before he left the doors of the Great Hall, he took a peek over at the Gryffindor table, fully expecting Hermione to be clutching her stomach and rolling on the floor laughing. Instead, he found her with a scowl on her face, her eyebrows meeting at the center of her forehead and her lips turned up into a frown.

He didn't notice as he strode out the interested look on an unknown and silent audience's face that sat next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Hermione couldn't describe it. She thought it was hilarious how the great-grandmother of Pansy Parkinson would be hitting on the future Dark Lord. But when she saw her sit down on his lap, as if they were in an intimate relationship, she felt jealous. But she was confused. _Why would I be jealous of a friend? We're just friends, right?_

She shook her head. She definitely needed more time to mull things over. She finished her dinner and walked over to her favorite spot, the spot where she had first cried about Harry and Ron a few months back. She plopped down and stared out at the vast scene before her, listening to the birds chirping and the wind blowing in her hair.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Clarice smiled to herself as she saw Tom and Hermione's reactions. She was pretty sure that Tom had left to the Head's dorm and she had followed Hermione to make sure she had gone to where Clarice thought she would go: the spot at the lake.

Perfect. Time to put my plan into action. She informed Jake, her partner in crime, about her plans. She sent "Secret Agent Jake" off to the spot and told him to wait for the signal.

She then went to the Heads' Dorm to seek out Tom Riddle.

(A/N: I would've stopped here, but I decided to be nice this time. C:)

Clarice saw Tom pacing around the room in the Heads' dorm. His head snapped up when he heard someone enter, only to be replaced by a mask of indifference.

_Oh right, he doesn't know who I am._

"I'm Clarice, Hermione's friend." Clarice extended a hand towards Tom. Upon hearing Hermione's name, Tom visibly relaxed and slowly put down the mask that he had on.

"Hello Clarice. I'm Tom." Tom replied amiably. "Hermione's not here yet. I'm not sure where she is." Tom said in a worried tone.

"I know she's not here. I came to talk to you."

Tom raised an eyebrow. _What business would this girl have with him? He had just met her a few minutes ago!_

"O… okay."

"Follow me!" Clarice said, taking his arm and dragging her out of the room. Tom had no choice but to allow himself to be pulled towards an unknown destination.

He found himself next to the lake, close to the spot where he had first saw Hermione crying. He was tempted to go there, but Clarice had stopped him and turned to face him.

He looked warily at her. What came out of her mouth nearly knocked him off his feet.

"Do you like Hermione?" Clarice demanded.

Tom's mind went blank. He was diffidently not expecting this. No, scratch that. He didn't know what to expect at all, but he knew that if he were expecting something, this was definitely at the bottom of the "expecting" list.

Tom just gaped at her. Seconds passed, and the silence still filled the air.

"Well?" Clarice asked.

Tom shook himself. "Cutting to the chase huh?" Tom tried to sound confident, but even he could hear his voice wavering. He paused for a while, steadying himself. "I will tell you the truth. No, I do not like Hermione Granger." He replied, his voice much bolder and more confident. What he thought compared to what he said and presented himself, however, was a complete different story.

_Of course I don't like Hermione Granger. That's the last thing on my mind! Her friend is outrageous! Who would think that? We're merely friends. Even though Hermione is beautiful and smart and extremely kind… oh hell! This isn't helping! _

"Oh really?" Clarice mused as she stared into his eyes.

"Of... o… of c-c-course." He sputtered. He felt uneasy as she stared into his eyes, as if she could see right through him, as if she could see that war that was raging in his head. After all, they say that one's eyes are the windows to their souls.

Suddenly, Tom heard a yelp followed by a splash in the general direction of The Spot. Taking it as an excuse to leave, he bid his goodbye to Hermione's friend and hurried towards the spot, not because he was in a hurry to see to his Head duties and to help the student that fell into the lake, but because he wanted to get away from Clarice's extremely observant (and slightly unnerving) friend.

Clarice smirked. She grabbed Jake and they together snuck up behind to watch the scene.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Jake hated to do this, after all, he and Hermione were friends, but apparently it was for the "good of Hermione." And also because Clarice had threatened to spill his deepest secrets to everyone if he didn't help. So if the wrath of Hermione ever came back to haunt him, he would just point his finger at Clarice, the evil mastermind of the operation. He really hoped that Hermione didn't believe in "guilt by association," or he would be in big trouble.

He received the signal from Clarice in the form of a paper crane that flew around him, poking him for good measure, and then unfolding itself. On the sheet of paper, Clarice's handwriting wrote "NOW!"

Jake silently apologized to the unsuspecting Hermione and threw a dung bomb towards her, careful to make sure that it landed close to her, but not on her.

He heard a yelp and a splash and snuck away, only to get pulled back by Clarice. They hid behind a tree, careful to keep their distance, and stayed there to watch what would happen.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom walked swiftly over, looking over his shoulder to make sure Clarice wasn't following him. He reached the spot and was shocked to see Hermione sputtering, soaked from head to toe and partly submerged in water.

He couldn't help but laugh at the sight of her, confused and wet, but still managing to look beautiful.

"Stop laughing at me and help me up!" Hermione pouted.

"And why would I want to do that? I'll get my clothes wet." Tom feigned indifference.

Hermione scowled. "It's not funny. Some loser threw a dung bomb at me."

Tom couldn't help but find her extremely endearing, her expression between pouting and scowling. He surrendered and extended his hand to help her up, careful to keep his distance so he wouldn't lose his footing on the wet stones around the lake. If he had been paying attention, however, he would have noticed a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Suddenly, he found himself flying in the air and then being swallowed by the cold water. His head rose out of the depths and he spit out the water that filled his mouth.

He looked to his right when he heard giggles next to him. "Oh, you're going to pay for that." Tom threatened playfully and tickled her at her sides. As if trying to protect herself, she sunk down underwater and held her sides, trying to prevent him from tickling her.

But Tom had other plans. His hands went around her waist and they both came up for more air. He was about to resume tickling her, but then he realized the closeness between them. It seemed that simultaneously, she did too. They held each other's stares, not noticing as their faces drew closer and closer.

_Snap. _A nearby twig snapped, drawing the two towards the sound. Realization dawned on Tom and Hermione as they blushed crimson. They both separated themselves from each other and Tom helped her out of the lake, then slowly making their way back to the castle, careful to keep a safe distance between the two of them.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"DANG IT! They were so close! Why'd you have to step on a stupid twig Jake?" Clarice yelled as she hit Jake.

Jake cringed and rubbed his now throbbing arm. "It wasn't me! I swear! I was perfectly still!"

Clarice narrowed her eyes. If it wasn't Jake or her, who could it have been?

* * *

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Please review! Remember, the goal this week will be 17 reviews!

The next update may take a little longer. I tried writing the next chapter after finishing this one, but I'm not that sure how to write it.

So you know the drill everyone! Review!

See ya next time!

-CCC


	14. Chapter 13

Hey everone! Thanks for the reviews! Here's Chapter 13! I had fun writing this, and I'm sure some of you guys will really enjoy it. Onward!

**Disclaimer: **The author of Harry Potter has an R in her name. Oh sweet! I have an 'R'! She's also has an 'L' in her name. ME TOO! YAY! Oh, and she happens to have made millions of dollars off of her books. Dang it. You see, I'm still not JK Rowling. All characters that you recognize are created and owned by JK Rowling.

Previously on Changing:

"_DANG IT! They were so close! Why'd you have to step on a stupid twig Jake?" Clarice yelled as she hit Jake._

_Jake cringed and rubbed his now throbbing arm. "It wasn't me! I swear! I was perfectly still!"_

_Clarice narrowed her eyes. If it wasn't Jake or her, who could it have been?_

Chapter 13

Tom walked into the common room after his shower to find Hermione curled up on the couch, sleeping. He sighed, picking her up and taking her to her room. He laid her down on the bed and covered her with a warm blanket so she wouldn't catch a cold.

His efforts were in vain, however, for Hermione Granger woke up the next morning with a head cold; her nose was running and she looked… well, she looked like she had gotten lost in the Forbidden Forest and had been chased by centaurs.

Tom Riddle snorted in his attempt to hide his laughter when he saw her come down from her room, only to receive a glare from Hermione that only seemed more hilarious due to the fact she was wrapped up in blankets.

"I take it that you're not feeling well?" Tom tried to sound pleasant. He received a poor-aimed pillow flying towards his head, which he dodged with little effort. "Now, now Granger. That's not very nice. I'm worried for you, that's all."

"Oh tuff it Widdle." Hermione sniffled.

Tom snickered. "Is that they way you treat the person that put you in your bed when you fell asleep on the coach?"

Hermione only sniffled, refusing to reply to his question. Tom noticed immediately her reddened cheeks, and took it the wrong way.

"Do you have a fever Granger?" He asked, genuinely worried this time, putting his hand over her forehead.

She jumped, startled, not expecting his cool hand over her forehead, and she definitely didn't expect it to feel good. At that thought, Hermione felt a little woozy and felt herself losing balance on the chair she was sitting on. Instead of falling to the ground, she felt a hard surface behind her, and upon inspecting the shape, she found it to have on a very nice looking polo.

_Oh. It's Tom. _Her brain finally registered.

She felt his arms go around her, dragging her out of her seat.

"No." Hermione groaned, not wanting to move, grabbing onto the nearest stationary object, only to be dragged away from it.

"Come on Granger." He grunted. "Time to go to the Hospital Wing."

Hermione, wanting to go back to bed, tried to wiggle out of his grasp, towards her bedroom, but his hard, muscular, and very warm arms kept her from escaping. She tried to go from under his arms, but he, being extremely impatient now, swept one of his arms under her legs and carried her, bridal style, towards the hospital wing.

"TOM! Put me down!" Hermione demanded, slapping his chest. Tom ignored her and continued down the hall, receiving weird looks from the people around them.

Finally, after Hermione exerted what was left of her energy in fighting off Tom, she took a deep breath and reasoned with him. "Tom, I don't want you to get sick. Put me down." She said in between sniffles.

Tom smirked. "Don't worry. I'm healthy as a hippogriff. I won't get sick." Tom proceeded to leave her in the hands of the mediwitch, Madame Dona, and then went to class.

The next day, Tom found out that he had a real knack for jinxing things.

"Healthy as a hippogriff, huh?" Hermione laughed as she handed Tom a potion that would help his pounding headache. Tom sent Hermione what he thought was a very threatening glare, but Hermione found it to be very cute.

"Aww, poor Tommy has a cold!" Tom ignored her, settling back into the covers so he could get better faster and get away from Hermione's comments, the sooner, the better.

Hermione smiled and left Tom's room, turning out the lights as she went out. "I'll give you a copy of my notes from the class you missed."

Tom merely grunted.

"Good night Tommy!"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom woke up three times during the day.

The first time, he grimaced. On the table beside him, he found a "Get well soon" teddy bear. The poor teddy bear never saw it coming as it sailed across the room.

The second time, he found a pile of parchment, attached with a note. Groaning, he lifted himself off his bead to examine the pile.

_I'm offended that you didn't like the teddy bear. I think it's rather cute. I was very tempted to not give you today's notes, but seeing as I'm an incredibly kind-hearted person, I didn't want to see you fail. _

_Enjoy Tommy!_

_-Hermione_

Tom felt his lips quirk up into a smile. Tom swung his legs over slowly, walked over to the corner of the room where the unfortunate bear was lying, and picked it up. He stared at it for a while. It was really an ugly bear. The eyes were lopsided, the nose was crooked, and one ear was bigger than the other. Tom chuckled and walked back to bed, with the bear in hand.

Tom woke up to the sigh of an angel the third time. There she was, leaning against her arms on the bed, asleep in a chair. She stirred, as if feeling his eyes on her and slowly opened her eyes, revealing the beautiful brown orbs.

"You're awake now?" Hermione murmured, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Her hand went to the bedside table and grabbed a vial, handing it to Tom.

"You don't have to take care of me, you know." Tom said, slightly irritated. He wasn't used to being taken cared of; he wasn't sure how to react.

"I know." Hermione replied. "But I feel responsible for making you sick. Drink this. It'll make you feel better."

"And how do I know you're not going to poison me?" Tom raised a mocking eyebrow.

Hermione scoffed. "Just drink the damn potion Tom."

"I don't want to." Tom huffed.

"Now you're really acting like a two-year old." Hermione scowled. "Now drink this, or I'll have to…"

"Or you'll what?" Tom asked, eyes gleaming. "Feed it to me?"

Hermione was speechless for a second, contemplating his words. When her mind finally started up again, she got up and started towards the door.

"I see you're feeling better now Tom. Don't forget to study. If you don't feel well, that potion will be your best friend."

"Wait."

Hermione felt herself being whirled around by Tom and a warm pressure on her lips.

Tom didn't know what made him do it. He didn't want her to leave; he hadn't meant to make her angry, just to annoy her. He realized the reason for her bad mood- she had just spent a good part of her afternoon checking on him, and he was acting like an ass about it.

As he watched her retreating figure, he desperately grabbed her arm and whirled her around, causing her to lose balance and leaning on Tom. The first thing he saw when she righted herself was her lips, and without thinking, he kissed her.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

3 days later...

Saying Hermione was pissed was an understatement. She was furious.

Who does he think he is? First he kisses her, and then he doesn't talk to her for 3 days? THREE DAYS?

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom knew he was avoiding Hermione. Okay, so it was a cowardly move. It just felt weird when he was with Hermione. And Tom didn't like things that were out of the ordinary. Okay, well Hermione was an exception. She was definitely out of the ordinary – she was beautiful, smart, and came out of nowhere. She had the most gorgeous brown eyes and a dazzling smile. Whenever she walked into a room, almost every male was affected, including Tom himself. Everyone liked her, even if they didn't really know her that well. The professors thought she was brilliant, she received top marks, and she was beautiful in every single way. She had -

_Oh Merlin. _ Tom thought as it dawned on him.

He had fallen.

Hard.

Tom Riddle was in lo- infatuated with Hermione Granger.

He grimaced. He couldn't be… _in love. _He'd never felt love before, how would you know about something that you've never known before?

Now, he was definitely attracted to her, but _love_?

No. That was impossible. Tom reasoned.

It was a small crush; he'd get over it easily.

After, they were just friends, right?

Right?

--------------------

There you have it! Please review! It wasn't that long, i'm aware of that, but i just felt that it was a good stop for the chapter. Please make me happy and review!

I've actually started writing the next chapter, so the more reviews I get, the faster I write, and the faster I post it up!

Thanks for reading! Hope to hear form you in the reviews!

-CCC


	15. Chapter 14

**So, I realize I haven't updated in… 3 months? ::winces:: But I've been extremely busy and no inspiration has come to me thus far. So I've decided to stop writing this story until some later date. When? I have no idea. Maybe I'll come back to it someday, perhaps I won't. Here's beginning of the next chapter that I had planned and left sitting in the hard drive of my computer, gathering dust.**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 14

Whoever said gossip traveled fast was wrong. Gossip travels like wildfire, from the astronomy tower all they way to the cold, gloomy dungeons.

Hermione and Tom Riddle, Head Girl and Head Boy, Gryffindor and Slytherin, great friends, went to Halloween Ball together, were ignoring each other.

It was quite obvious.

And to say that Penelope Parkinson was pleased was the understatement of the year. She was _ecstatic._

Ever since her little friend had informed her of what had gone down in the lake, she was livid. She watched the two closely, but was extremely peeved that she couldn't get into the Heads dorms.

But no matter now, they weren't talking. She smirked.

Her brother, noticing the creepy smirk on her face, knew something was wrong. "What're you so happy about Pen?"

Penelope scowled. She hated it when her brother called him that. It made her sound like a man. If she wasn't so happy now, and if he wasn't her brother, she would've sent a nasty hex towards him.

"Tom and that mudblood aren't talking anymore." She smiled.

Lionel Parkinson frowned. "Don't tell me you're trying to seduce Tom again."

"It doesn't matter what I do or don't do. It's none of your business. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find my future boyfriend." Penelope remarked flippantly.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom's revelation unearthed his curiosity of Hermione's past. He didn't believe her explanation, not one bit, and he was determined to find out what it was.

_You could just ask her. _A voice inside Tom's head drawled.

_But will she tell me?_

_You can always try._

No, that wouldn't work. He didn't want to confront Hermione just yet, especially since "The Incident".

Thinking back, he remembered that Hermione was wearing strange robes when he first saw her outside of the Headmaster's office. They were definitely Hogwarts robes, but they weren't like the ones that the they wore now. But she was from Beauxbatons, so how did she have robes from Hogwarts, that weren't like the robes from Hogwarts?

He groaned.

Hermione Granger was a million piece puzzle, a puzzle that was so complex that it would take him forever to complete.

Maybe it'd be easier to just ask her.

"Hello Tom."

Tom shuddered, immediately recognizing the person which the nasally voice belonged to.

"Hello Penelope." He managed to say between gritted teeth.

"What're you doing this weekend?" She asked seductively.

Tom just about threw up in his mouth.

"Uhh. I'm studying in the library." Tom said quickly, hoping she'd bugger off.

"Well, since you're not doing anything…" Penelope interrupted, not hearing his excuse. "You can go to Hogsmeade with me."

_Hell no. _"Wait! Sorry! I am doing something! As a matter of fact, I'm going with somebody to Hogsmeade."

Penelope raised her perfectly waxed eyebrow. "Who?"

"Hermione!" Tom said the first name on his mind, which happened to be on his mind quite a bit lately.

Penelope laughed, which Tom sounded like a banshee. "Very funny Tom. Pick me up at 11." She sauntered off.

Tom groaned. He could handle dark magic, he'd controlled a giant snake, he'd killed people, and yet Penelope always seemed to annoy the hell out of him.

He really wished she'd just _bugger off. _

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Tom was in trouble. He'd gotten himself into a date that he didn't even agree to (How the hell did that happen?) and he was confused as hell with Hermione.

Instead of the wrath of an angry witch (which is what he expected), she was perfectly civil with him. And he _knew _that something was wrong if she was being civil about what just happened between them. Okay, so Tom wasn't an expert on girls, but he was pretty sure that if you… kissed… a girl and didn't talk to her after that, she'd be peeved… at the very least.

Okay, so that sounded really bad. Tom had a perfectly good explanation for why he didn't talk to her. Because, you see… they… we… awkward… friends.

_Shit. _

Tom realized he was being a totally wanker about it. He paced around the room, the only sound besides his feet on the carpet was the "tick, tock" of the grandfather clock.

"Tom, you're going to make a hole in the floor at this rate if you keep pacing." Tom's head snapped up as he heard Hermione's voice ring out above the silence.

"Uh. Hermione… hi." Tom greeted her.

"Hello Tom." She said pleasantly.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

"Well, I have to go now."

Tom's brain was going into overdrive. "WAIT!"

**Thanks for reading everyone. I may be starting a new story, I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see.**

**-CCC**


End file.
